KARAPATAN: DND, DOJ budgets geared towards further rights violations
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
16 September 2025
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN: DND, DOJ budgets geared towards further rights violations
Karapatan called on the House of Representatives to thoroughly scrutinize the proposed budgets of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 2026, saying that both agencies have been identified with repression.
Said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “The ballooning defense budget is one that is geared towards killing and maiming Filipinos, not external enemies.”
The proposed DND budget for 2026 is Php430.87 billion, a 13.72% over its 2025 allocation. This is the third consecutive year that the DND will be enjoying a double-digit hike in its budget.
The bulk of the DND budget will ostensibly be used for the AFP’s modernization in line with its program of shifting to external defense. Yet, said Palabay, a review of the AFP’s latest acquisitions reveals that it is buying Israeli-made 155-mm self-propelled howitzers, Black hawk and T129B attack helicopters that will no doubt be used to intensify artillery and aerial strikes against suspected rebel areas, which invariably turn out to be production areas of civilians living in the countryside.
The proposed DND budget likewise includes Php50 billion in unprogrammed funding and Php3 billion under the TIKAS Program, a collaboration between the DND and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) allotted for military infrastructure projects.
“Given the explosive revelations on bureaucratic corruption, we should rightly be suspicious about any kind of unprogrammed funding, especially in such a notorious government entity like the DND,” said Palabay. “Likewise, all infrastructure projects deserve a second look because corrupt DPWH and DND officials may be pocketing millions or billions in kickbacks from substandard or even ghost projects,” she said.
“As for the DOJ,” decried Palabay, “its resources are being wasted on concocting trumped-up criminal charges against activists, and weaponizing terror laws against dissenters. Its investigative teams formed under AO 35 have also been utterly useless in attaining justice for victims of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture and other grave violations of human rights.” The DOJ’s proposed budget for 2026 is Php42.25 billion, a 12% increase over its 2025 budget of Php37.757 billion.
The Filipino people will be better served if the bulk of the budgetary allocations for the DND and the DOJ are diverted to education, health, social welfare, mass housing, agricultural support and other items that genuinely benefit the masses, concluded Palabay.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.