THE Philippine government should prioritize funding critical sectors like education, healthcare, and climate adaptation instead of defense, Stop the War Coalition Philippines said.
“Divest from militarization, slash the defense budget and reallocate funds to education, healthcare, and climate resilience,” Merci Llarina-Angeles, secretariat for the Stop the War Coalition Philippines, said in a forum on Wednesday.
Ms. Angeles said that critical sectors remain “starved of resources,” while the defense sector ballooned to over P300 billion in 2025.
The country’s education sector faces a P50-billion shortfall that leaves students in overcrowded classrooms. The healthcare sector also continues to be underfunded, with one out of three Filipinos unable to afford medical care.
Moreover, the group said that climate adaptation programs received less than 1% of the national budget, despite the country ranking as among the most vulnerable to climate change.
“The reckless prioritization of war over welfare betrays the Filipino people.”
Ms. Angeles said that the Philippines should also oppose foreign military bases and close Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites, as these risk entangling the country to conflict.
“The Philippines has been fashioned into a forward tripwire state, which could transform the entire nation into a southern battlefront of impending war between the US and China over Taiwan,” Ms. Angeles added.
US troops currently have access to nine EDCA sites, including two military bases in Cagayan which are facing Taiwan.
“The stakes could not be higher. If we do not act now, the Philippines will be locked into a future of endless war, ecological collapse, and stolen sovereignty,” she said.
The Philippines has increase budgetary allocation on the defense sector amid efforts to counter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, with about P35 billion for the modernization of the military over the next decade.
Philippine forces have repeatedly sparred with Chinese ships and aircraft in the South China Sea over competing claims on Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, among other sea features.
A United Nations-backed tribunal based in the Hague in 2016 voided China’s claim to more than 80% of the South China Sea, where more than $3 trillion worth of trade passes through each year. — Adrian H. Halili
