Philippines’ rising military pensions risk triggering budget ‘time bomb’

The Philippines' military modernization efforts are being constrained by a rapidly increasing pension bill for its personnel. The Department of National Defence has proposed allocating 142.95 billion pesos (US$2.3 billion) for military and uniformed personnel pensions in 2027, which represents a 7% increase from the 2026 allocation. This significant pension expenditure is a substantial portion of the total proposed defence budget of 324.6 billion pesos for 2027. The growing pension costs are raising concerns about the country's ability to finance new defense assets like ships and aircraft, leading to calls for a review of the pension system.