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Basically, what changes are needed over the past 30 years or so in order to create a Philippines is far more heavily armed and with a more well equipped military than it has today? Say a Philippines that spends 4 percent or 3 percent of its GDP on the military vs. barely 1 percent today? Would the military coup against succeeding in 1989 by getting the backing of the US help, assuming that the top brass does not use the vast majority of those extra funds to line their pockets instead of purchasing weapons? A Philippines which spends 4 percent of GDP on defence could basically afford to buy AESA frigates, Apache attack helicopters, and F-35 if it was allowed to, and hence would have a much stronger leverage against China. The Philippine economy, at over 300 billion, is even large enough to finance a nuclear weapons program if it really wanted to similar to Pakistan.
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