Teodoro warns PMA of ‘weaponization of information’ as warfare moves beyond battlefield

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Wars are no longer fought only with guns, ships, and aircraft. Information itself can be weaponized, and future military leaders must know how to deal with it.

Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. raised that warning during the Philippine Military Academy’s 128th Foundation Anniversary on Saturday, October 24, pointing to the “pervasive weaponization of information” as one of the security challenges that military institutions can no longer afford to treat as secondary.

Teodoro said technological advances, geopolitical developments, disruptions to supply chains, and other changes can emerge quickly and carry consequences for the security of states and individuals.

Some of these changes, he said, are not even the result of carefully planned government action but may come from technological breakthroughs or decisions by major global players that force everyone else to adjust.

The military, he said, must be able not only to respond but also to build leaders capable of managing organizations through that uncertainty.

For the Philippines, Teodoro said, that means strengthening the institutions needed to protect “our most sacred sovereignty, territorial integrity, and dignity as a Filipino people.”

Teodoro is among the most vocal in the Philippine government over China’s actions against the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea, enough for China to bar him from entering the country as well as from engaging in “any transaction, cooperation or other activities” with organizations or individuals in China.

‘Tall order’

Teodoro said the changing security environment also affects what PMA is expected to produce.

“We have to produce in this academy war fighters, make no bones about it. Every graduate of this institution is a war fighter,” he said.

He was quick to explain that he was not referring only to soldiers engaged in combat. “War fighting is not confined to combat operations and kinetic operations. War fighting spans the whole gamut of activities that will preserve the national objectives of any state,” he said.

That includes intelligence, analysis, logistics, personnel support, and the people who keep operations going behind the front line.

“Every person in uniform is a war fighter. Every member of the civilian human resource team of the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines is a war fighter,” he said.

For PMA, this means doing two difficult jobs within the cadets’ four years at Fort del Pilar.

The academy must give them an education that can meet Philippine standards and stand alongside peer institutions in countries the Philippines works with. At the same time, it must produce junior officers ready to serve in the Armed Forces and, beginning three years from now, the Philippine Coast Guard.

Those graduates, Teodoro said, must leave with the proper military ethics, duties, responsibilities, and basic tactical skills required of their respective services.

“That is a tall order,” he said.

‘Today is not fast enough’

Teodoro also had a message for defense planners: Think bigger. Move faster.

“The Philippines cannot afford to be conservative in its planning,” he said.

If the country plans cautiously while similarly situated states are more ambitious, he said, the Philippines risks falling behind. That is particularly dangerous when sovereignty and national security are involved.

“Ambitious plans needed to have been laid down on the ground years ago,” Teodoro said. “But we cannot recoup the past. We can only make the present faster.”

Then came one of his sharpest lines: “And today is not fast enough. Tomorrow is certainly unacceptable.”

Teodoro said he had extensive discussions with PMA Superintendent Lieutenant General Michael Logico on the academy’s growth plans, infrastructure, curriculum, Corps of Professors, and the future design of the Cadet Corps, building on goals left by former superintendent Vice Admiral Caesar Bernard Valencia.

Education is not the same as training

Teodoro also questioned a habit he said he has seen in AFP education and training systems.

“Education is for knowledge. Training is for skills,” he said.

The two, he argued, should not simply be fused together. “Without knowledge, you cannot form skills. You cannot train skills.”

Military officers need a continuing and current body of knowledge across different fields, he said, because conflict has become increasingly multidisciplinary, unpredictable, and difficult to structure neatly.

That knowledge can then be translated into skills.

Teodoro also took issue with educational opportunities being awarded without sufficient regard for merit, particularly in advanced study and research.

“The opportunity for acquiring knowledge should be democratic,” he said.

Once that opportunity has been made available fairly, however, he said “individual merit and excellence” should determine educational qualification.

PMA cannot stay inside Fort Del Pilar

Teodoro also challenged the idea that PMA education and training should remain confined to its Baguio home.

“Fort Del Pilar houses the Philippine Military Academy. But the Philippine Military Academy should not be solely in Fort Del Pilar,” he said.

The Philippines has too many different operating environments, he said, for future officers to depend on a single training venue.

He linked this to the government’s push to secure military reservations for AFP use and to address infrastructure gaps that have affected operations, particularly in the maritime domain, as well as logistics, internal security, external defense, and disaster response.

Teodoro said the Armed Forces must be ready to enforce Philippine laws across the country’s vast maritime domain and deal with state actors that may not always follow international law.

That, he said, is why the defense establishment cannot afford timid planning.

The task for PMA is no longer simply to teach cadets how to fight the wars previous generations knew. It is to give them enough knowledge, skill, and judgment to understand what the next threat looks like, especially when it may arrive not as a bullet, but as information. – Rappler.com