House Deputy Majority Leader Luigi Villafuerte believes that the 20th Congress can help accelerate current plans by the military and police to modernize their technology-driven crisis-response and defense capabilities by spending an initial P10 billion on acquiring and, later on, building our own unmanned aerial systems (UAS) not only for fighting terrorism, insurgency and other crimes, but also for disaster response, environmental protection, and border patrol and search-and-rescue missions.
Villafuerte said this program on UAS or drones has acquired greater urgency after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine National Police (PNP) Acting Chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez, Jr. separately cited in October the need for the respective tech-driven modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PNP, including the acquisition—and eventual development of our own—airborne and land-based drone and counter-drone systems.
The former Camarines Sur governor proposed the complementary Philippine Unmanned Aerial System Program (PUASP) and Strategic Defense Technology Transfer Program (SDTTP) for “the acquisition of surveillance, reconnaissance, combat, disaster-response and medical evacuation (medevac) drones, and the establishment of an R&D (research and development) program to enable the Philippines to build its own UAS in the long run.”
“Our military, defense and police establishments should have the wherewithal to acquire, deploy and integrate—and later on build our own— UAVs or drones, to strengthen the combat, surveillance, medivac, patrol and disaster response, among others, of our military and police forces,” said Villafuerte, who principally authored House Bill (HB) No. 1362 creating the PUASP and the SDTTP.
Otherwise known as the “National Defense Drone Act,” HB 1362 seeks the establishment of the PUASP to oversee the acquisition of drones, deployment of such unmanned vehicles, inter-agency usage protocols, data security compliance and training of drone operators and technicians.
By way of the PUASP, Villafuerte likewise wants the military to pursue R&D activities with local universities and colleges as well as tech start-ups to spur the local manufacture and maintenance of drones.
Villafuerte recalled that as early as 2013, the DND already planned to incorporate the acquisition of drones as part of the agency’s Marine Forces Imagery and Targeting Support System Acquisition Project worth P684 million.
Also, HB 1362 proposes the establishment of the SDTTP, as a complement to the PUASP, to provide tax incentives to the private sector to engage in drone development, as a way to encourage local innovation and reduce long-term costs for this drone acquisition program.
Drones are unmanned aircraft that are operated remotely by pilots from a well calculated distance to oversee a wide range of landscape, seascape, riverscape and cityscape, amongst others, for purposes of aerial photography and aerial videography, surveillance and security, search and rescue, delivery of goods and services, monitoring of climate change and other environmental changes, and military operations.
The bill proposes an initial amount of P10 billion for the implementation of both PUASP and SDTTP, to be sourced from the national budget and/or AFP modernization fund, and subsequently, with additional funding through the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA) written yearly by the Congress.
Villafuerte sought the prompt legislative approval of HB 1362 after Teodoro stressed in his keynote speech at the Oct. 27-29 Philippine Navy Drone Warfare Summit 2025 at the Subic Freeport the importance for an archipelagic country like the Philippines to develop and integrate unmanned systems, as a way to leverage emerging technologies to strengthen its domestic and external defense capabilities.
“In times of crisis or conflict, dependence on foreign sources for critical defense equipment can limit our ability to act swiftly and independently,” Teodoro said, in a speech read for him at the three-day Subic event by retired general and Assistant Secretary Augusto Gaite for defense technology and research industry.
The defense secretary said the Philippines was fast-tracking efforts to develop a manufacturing ecosystem for UAS, a capability that levelled the playing field for countries facing adversaries with better military power.
Gaite said that remotely piloted drones are “valuable tools” in modern warfare that allows users to act with “greater precision and speed,” even as they cost less when compared with other advanced weaponry like missiles and fighter jets.
“The responsible development and integration of unmanned systems is no longer an option; it is essential,” Gaite said. “The challenge now is to scale these innovations to bridge the gap between the prototype and production in concept and capability.”
Filipino soldiers have trained with unmanned weapon systems, including the US anti-ship Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) and sea drones, during a joint exercise with American troops last April.
Philippine Army (PA) Commanding General Lt. Gen. Antoio Nafarrete said in another report that the army is expanding its UAS capability through its Reserve Command (RESCOM), which is one of the first PA units to harness drones and train its soldiers as drone operators.
The Army has started acquiring UAS systems like the Raptor, Knight Falcon, Elbit Hermes, Skylark and Thor drones.
Separately, PNP chief Nartatez said that the police is investing more in a tech-driven approach to peace and order and emergency response that leverages drones, data analytics and interconnected systems to improve the situational awareness and operational efficiency of the police.
Nartatez said the police is using drones for real-time monitoring, reconnaissance and rapid information-sharing in times of disasters, traffic management, search-and-rescue activities and law enforcement operations.
Villafuerte said that, “Drones have become beneficial when these unmanned vehicles made their way into the daily operations of different sectors owing to their numerous functions.”
Before being harnessed for commercial operations, Villafuerte said that drones were initially manufactured for military purposes for performing tasks that were difficult and dangerous for mankind, “making military operations 10 times faster and more efficient in terms of surveillance and security, search and rescue, and monitoring climate change as human capacity and capabilities are limited.”
Through the bill-proposed PUASP, Villafuerte suggests to the military to acquire:
· Surveillance and reconnaissance drones for real-time monitoring of maritime, border and insurgency-wracked areas;
· Combat drones equipped with precision-guided munitions for defense or combat operations;
· Logistics and medical evacuation (medevac) drones for supply transport and medical emergency support in inaccessible areas; and
· Disaster response drones for rapid assessment, search-and-rescue and aid delivery during calamities.
Villafuerte recalled that as early as 2013, the DND already planned to incorporate the acquisition of drones as part of the agency’s Marine Forces Imagery and Targeting Support System Acquisition Project worth P684 million.
But it was only in 2017 that the Philippine Marine Corps started using drones for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) purposes.
In 2018, he said the PA and Philippine Air Force (PAF) likewise incorporated the use of drones in their operations by acquiring (6) brand new ScanEagle UAV, through the support of the US Foreign Military Financing Program.
By 2023, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) incorporated UAVs into their operations to monitor coasts and shorelines, following the increasing Chinese aggression in the West Philippines Sea (WPS).
With the nonstop WPS tensions and worsening natural calamities brought on by climate change, Villafuerte earlier proposed in a bill (HB 1363) a cost-effective strategy to beef up the AFP’s capability to undertake maritime patrols and disaster response by recommissioning old yet operational military helicopters and other aircraft in the face of the limited budget of the defense establishment.
Otherwise known as the “Military Air Asset Rehabilitation and Modernization Act,” HB 1363 tasks the DND to initiate a Military Air Asset Rehabilitation Program (MAARP) to conduct technical inspection and feasibility analysis of available aircraft for possible recommissioning, and conduct, with the AFP, a full inventory of all decommissioned aircraft in military storage nationwide, within 90 days from the effectivity of this Act.
HB 1363 allocates an initial amount of P5 billion for this recommissioning program, to be sourced from the unprogrammed funds of the national budget or other available funding sources.
