Philippine defense budget to rise 6.4% amid South China Sea tensions

MANILA (Reuters) -- The Philippines is allocating 256.1 billion pesos ($4.38 billion) for defense spending in 2025, the budget ministry said on Monday, up 6.4% from this year's budget as the country seeks to modernize and boost its external defenses.

The proposed increase in defense spending comes at a time of growing tensions with Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which China mostly claims as its own.

The defense budget accounts for 4% of the government's proposed 6.35 trillion peso spending plan for 2025, which the budget ministry submitted to Congress on Monday.

Of the total defense budget, 204.4 billion pesos will go to the land, air and naval forces, the budget ministry said, while 50 billion pesos will help fund the armed forces' revised modernization plan, which reflects a strategic shift away from internal to external defense.

The planned defense spending is dedicated to "uphold our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman told lawmakers.

The Philippines has said it will keep asserting its rights in the South China Sea even after it reached a "provisional arrangement" with China about its resupply missions to the contested Second Thomas Shoal.

A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague found that Beijing's expansive claims have no basis under international law. The case was brought by the Philippines, but China has rejected the ruling.

Under the proposed 2025 budget, the Philippine Coast Guard, which has been carrying out patrols and escorting resupply missions in the South China Sea, will see a 6% budgetary increase to 31.4 billion pesos.

Next year's spending plan is equal to 22% of the country's gross domestic product and 10.1% higher than