AFP modernization's Horizon 1 80% completed, Horizon 2 at 10% –Bacarro

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Tuesday that 80 percent of Horizon 1 and 10 percent of Horizon 2 of its modernization program had been completed.

In a media interview, AFP chief Lieutenant Bartolome Vicente Bacarro said that the modernization projects were being reviewed due to budgetary constraints.

“There were some instructions coming from the Secretary of National Defense and the instruction was to review yung ating modernization because right now we are on the Second Horizon,” he said.

“Yung First Horizon natin ay hindi pa naibigay lahat, about, if I'm not mistaken, 80 percent pa lang eh. Then for the second horizon about 10 percent,” he added.

(All our First Horizon projects have yet to be delivered if I am not mistaken. It's only about 80 percent complete. Then for the Second Horizon about 10 percent.)

In July, Department of National Defense officer in charge Jose Faustino Jr. said the AFP’s modernization projects are under review due to limited funds.

In October 2021, then AFP chief Faustino said the military could still catch up with its 2022 target despite delays in its modernization program.

In 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the second horizon of the AFP modernization program with around P300 billion budget to be implemented from 2018 to 2022.

The modernization program, which was initiated under former President Benigno Aquino III, is divided into three phases with five years of implementation each. Horizon 1 started in 2013 and ended in 2017. — DVM, GMA News