Legarda pushes for stronger AFP support: Quick Response Fund, transparent remittances

Senator Loren Legarda, in her interpellation of the proposed 2026 budget of the Department of National Defense (DND), pressed for stronger support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) through the restoration of a Quick Response Fund (QRF) and greater transparency in remittances from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

Legarda, in 2018, pushed for and secured a ₱750 million Quick Response Fund for the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the General Appropriations Act.

“This fund supported rescue operations, logistics, and post-disaster operations. In the succeeding years, however, there was none,” Legarda stressed.

Legarda noted that while agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Public Works and Highways have their own QRF, the AFP does not. “Why not the Armed Forces? They are frontliners. If there is fiscal space, I would humbly, respectfully, but strongly advocate for a QRF for the AFP,” she said.

Beyond disaster response, Legarda cited Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro’s remarks that the BCDA model has failed: “Secretary Teodoro publicly declared the model a failure, noting that the AFP earned only ₱45 billion in 26 years while losing irreplaceable strategic assets such as Fort Bonifacio.”

“First, before it is even renewed, there must be a clear inventory and audit of that because we owe it to our Armed Forces of the Philippines. It belongs to them, so dapat ibigay sa kanila,” Legarda said, emphasizing the need for accountability.

Legarda, who also chairs the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation, also flagged the vulnerability of military lands, noting that “sixty-nine percent of AFP camps are exposed to espionage, encroachments, and legal uncertainties. Many AFP camps reportedly overlap with private titles, ancestral domains, protected areas, and LGU-claimed lands.” She urged reforms to maximize the use of these lands, including greening programs and carbon credit trading.

“It would be good to see also the wealth of the nation by looking at the list and the inventory of the military reservations—forests, uplands, mangrove areas, wetlands. Credit trading income can go into the AFP modernization as well,” Legarda said.

Legarda closed her interpellation with an earnest appeal: to provide the Armed Forces of the Philippines with the resources they deserve, safeguard their assets, and harness their lands for national security and climate resilience. (30)