Teodoro reiterates need for credible defense posture
Philippine News Agency
By Priam Nepomuceno
August 15, 2025, 7:28 pm
MANILA -- Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. reiterated the urgent need for the country to build a credible defense posture amid complex geopolitical and socio-economic realities.
Teodoro delivered the message during the US-ASEAN Business Council 2025 Aerospace, Defense and Security (ADS) Mission to the Philippines, according to a news release on Friday.
"It is more painful to be behind the curve because one day you need to be on that curve. If not, you lose. And you have to win in whatever objective you set," Teodoro said.
"You cannot have a soft win which is not permanent. You have to have a firm win. And for me, the win is nobody touches the Philippines -- whoever it may be," he added.
The 2025 ADS Mission in the Philippines brought together representatives from major US companies in the finance, defense and security industry, and provided an opportunity to contextualize the Philippines' defense capability buildup along with the regional and global security challenges.
Teodoro noted that the Philippine defense system is now "busy catching up on infrastructure development."
"You can never escape the hard fact that sooner or later, your lack of substance will catch up with you," he said.
The DND chief stressed that credible deterrence is urgently needed as the Philippines has already tried alternative dispute resolution mechanisms that, he said, "only work when you have a stick behind you."
"Our role now is to provide as much deterrence as possible in order for our president, our diplomats, and all our other sectors to have as big a toolkit as possible to protect our interests peacefully," Teodoro said. (PNA)
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