Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) — A law is needed to allow the Department of National Defense (DND) to implement reforms that will allow it to provide better services to the public and its agencies, the department’s newly-appointed head said on Friday.
“We need a new law to recreate a new Department of National Defense,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
In an earlier interview Teodoro told CNN Philippines that he wants to reform the department and called for an increase in “investments” to enable the DND to do what it needs to as service providers of its agencies.
Agencies under the DND are the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Office of Civil Defense, the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, the National Defense College of the Philippines, and the Government Arsenal.
Teodoro said the new law should encompass “the evolving definition of national security.”
The DND chief said this will allow the creation of “an evolving structure where skill sets can be developed, we can grow our own capabilities in order to better serve the five agencies under us and serve the national interest.”
Teodoro has said he will push for a bigger budget for the DND given the need to acquire more capital assets to boost military capabilities, add infrastructures, and improve overall national defense.
