MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed into law a bill on Tuesday that aims to develop the country\u2019s defense industry to reduce its reliance on imported sources and create equipment tailored to its security challenges.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a logical move forward for a country that finds itself at the fulcrum of geopolitical shifts and volatilities. At its core this act is about cultivating a robust and sustainable national defense industry,\u201d Marcos said after signing the bill.
\nTo promote and encourage investments in the country\u2019s defense technology and production, the new self-reliant defense law will offer fiscal incentives ranging from tax breaks and government-backed financing, Marcos said.
\n\u201cWe will prioritize R&D to develop systems that meet our unique requirements to stay ahead of evolving threats, particularly asymmetrical threats that traditional systems may not be completely equipped to address,\u201d Marcos said.
\nThe new law, Marcos added, will also prioritize the production of critical defense materiel in the country, from small arms and tactical vehicles to more sophisticated systems.
\n\u201cIt establishes a structured approach to defensive development, starting with research and production capabilities that align our defense sector with our strategic objectives,\u201d Marcos said.
\nThe law is expected to complement government efforts to modernize its military, as it would help ensure that the Philippines can manufacture, maintain and upgrade military equipment.
\nThe Philippines has a relatively small defense industry capable of producing small arms and ammunition, but it has yet to achieve large-scale production of advanced military systems such as fighter jets.
\nIt is embarking on the latest phase of a multi-billion-dollar effort to modernize its military at a time of rising tension in the South China Sea.
\nIt has allocated $35 billion for the buildup, spread over the next decade, as it has faced off with China in sea and air confrontations over contested areas of the busy waterway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed into law a bill on Tuesday that aims to develop the country\u2019s defense industry to reduce its reliance on imported sources and create equipment tailored to its security challenges. \u201cIt\u2019s a logical move forward for a country that finds itself at the fulcrum of geopolitical shifts and volatilities. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71346,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71329\/revisions\/71346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}