2025 budget sees bulk of military upgrades in unprogrammed appropriations

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces can only readily tap P35 billion or less than half of its P75 billion modernization budget for 2025, as the bulk of the funds were placed in standby appropriations that require excess government revenue before release.

Only P35 billion of the military's P75 billion modernization budget for 2025 is guaranteed as actual funding, based on the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

Meanwhile, P40 billion was lodged under unprogrammed appropriations, which are standby appropriations outside the approved government fiscal program that do not have definite funding sources, according to the 2025 budget.

This departs from previous years when the guaranteed budget for the AFP modernization program had always exceeded its standby funds. 

The executive branch initially proposed P50 billion for the AFP's modernization program this year, which would have been the Marcos administration's largest budget for military upgrades if approved. However, Congress had realigned P15 billion of this to unprogrammed appropriations, based on the proposed and final 2025 budget documents. 

The military's revised three-phased modernization program started in 2013 under President Benigno Aquino Jr. as a response to China's growing aggression in the South China Sea. 

The program is currently in its biggest and final phase. In January 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved an updated acquisition plan called Re-Horizon 3, which will run for 10 years with an estimated cost of P2 trillion. This final stage focuses on acquiring modern weapons and shoring up the Philippines' defenses, including its denial and deterrence capabilities.

Philstar.com's review of military modernization budgets from 2018 — when the program entered its second phase — to 2025 shows a shift in how the program is funded under Marcos.

While the total budget for military upgrades grew from P45 billion in 2023, Marcos' first budget as president, to P75 billion in 2025, most of these increases were placed in standby funds.

Under the previous Duterte administration, which prepared the budgets from 2018 to 2022, guaranteed funds stayed between P25 billion to P29 billion while unprogrammed