Teodoro backs Brawner on hold-out period: Readiness ‘not in our DNA’
General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Department of War, pays a courtesy visit to Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro Jr. at Camp Aguinaldo on November 5, 2025. PHOTO FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Wednesday backed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Romeo Brawner Jr.’s remarks revealing the military’s target to sustain a holdout period of up to 30 days during wartime.
Brawner said the marching order of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to make sure the military could “fight and preserve our forces for at least 20 to 30 days” before any reinforcements from its ally, the United States, arrive.
READ: Brawner-afp-should-hold-out-up-to-30-days-before-us-aid-in-war-scenario/
The Department of National Defense (DND) chief said such preparations are just a normal evolution.”
“Other countries are trained and already used to their defense posture,” Teodoro said in an interview in Camp Aguinaldo in Filipino. “Now that we need to raise our defense and deterrent posture, the people are concerned and panicking because such preparations are not in our DNA.”
“Like the statement of General Brawner, that’s part of the doctrine of resilience—and our supply chain lasts that long—so we are training ourselves, which was not being done back in the day,” he continued.
Teodoro made the remarks after the courtesy visit of General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Department of War.
Caine is currently the highest-ranking military officer in the United States.
The DND said both Teodoro and Caine tackled ways to further operationalize bilateral strategic defense objectives like expanding cooperation and information sharing between the AFP and U.S. military forces.
Caine’s visit came days after the unveiling of Task Force Philippines, which was made to deter Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
READ: Teodoro-hegseth-unveil-new-task-force-vs-chinese-aggression-in-wps/
Teodoro noted America also has existing task forces in its other allied countries like Japan and South Korea.
“What the world deems normal, we do not deem normal because we’re not used to it,” he said of U.S task forces.
A task force, by its nature, is just mission-oriented and not a permanent body, according to the DND chief.
“We will do what we need to do as long as there’s a need,” he said.
Task Force Philippines is a function of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between Manila and Washington, which calls on each other’s defense in case of an “armed attack”.
Some of Beijing’s unprecedented aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea led some experts to suggest that the country could invoke MDT that would compel Washington to come to Manila’s defense.
Such actions are based on Beijing’s sweeping claim in almost the entire South China Sea, effectively dismissed by a landmark 2016 arbitral award which ruled heavily in favor of Manila. /mr
