Legarda pushes for systems integration of defense, security in PH academies
September 20, 2022Senator Loren Legarda on Monday, September 19 sought to establish the Philippine Defense University System to ensure a ‘’holistic, integrated, and comprehensive’’ defense and security education that is attuned to the current national security requirements.
Legarda thus filed Senate Bill 498 that seeks to link defense institutions through a more comprehensive and integrated system to prevent functional overlaps and curriculum fragmentation without disregarding individual mandates and operations.
The institutions covered by the bill include the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), and the Special Intelligence Training School (SITS).
As an alumna of the NDCP and the CGSC, Legarda underscored the critical role of defense and security education in molding strategic leaders and decision-makers in national security practice.
“I will continue to be your champion because defense and security is part of my system as a member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) family,” she said.
The lady senator said she believes that support to defense and security leaders through education and research would make them more responsive in their constitutional mandate to protect and defend the country and the Filipinos.
Legarda said that in 2017, she supported the creation of the Philippine Center for Excellence in Defense, Development and Security (PCEDS), the nexus for research and public dialogue on strategic and security issues lodged in the NDCP, the launching of the Executive MNSA, and the construction of academic buildings and quarters, among others.
Source: Manila Bulletin