Territorial dispute with China pushes Philipines to modernize Armed Forces

The territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is one of the many reasons for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The Aquino administration has allotted a budget of Php 75 billion  for the purchase and acquisition of materiel to upgrade its military capability under the AFP Modernization Program until 2017. 

The Philippines having one of the weakest Navies in Southeast Asia has recently acquired two refurbished class-cutters from the United States. The Philippines has lodged diplomatic protests against China for its incursions and occupations of islands, reefs,shoals found within the Philippine's 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, has in recent years been building its military might and has doubled its military spending which has become a cause of concern for small neighboring countries which claims to have experience China's aggressive behavior in the disputed territory. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are the other five countries who claim parts of the...