President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. sees "no point" for the Philippines to beef up its armory amid the surrounding political tensions among its neighbors.

Asked by World Economic Forum (WEF) president Børge Brende on the matter, Marcos said the country is "not in an economic situation" to bolster its defense unlike big economies like the United States and China.

It will just "end badly" for those involved and not involved if the solution to conflicts will be military, the Philippine leader said.

Video from RTVM

"There is no point the Philippines building up its armory... more importantly perhaps is our abiding belief that the solutions are not going to be military," Marcos told Brende in Davos, Switzerland.

"If a similar situation would arise in the region, then it would be actually —I would say it would be disastrous for the rest of the world as well, not only for the region but for the rest of the world," he added.

The President cited the interconnectivity of economies worldwide following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, seen most especially in the conflict's impact on food security.

The Department of National Defense's budget is at P204.4 billion in this year's government spending plan, lower than the P220 billion last year, documents from the Official Gazette showed.

Funds allotted for government arsenal are pegged at P1.5 billion, while the budget for the Philippine armed forces, which includes the land, naval, and air troops, is over P197 billion.

In December last year, Marcos said the government is reviewing proposals from the US concerning the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), as the country seeks to find “the most useful” ways to defend its territory.

Authorities earlier said the US is looking into building 5 additional joint military facilities in the Philippines under EDCA. Analysts and observers, however, cautioned the administration against pursuing this.

The EDCA — signed under the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III — allows US forces access to 5 Philippine bases to help counterbalance the growing Chinese presence in the South China Sea.

It is seen as an expansion of the decades-old MDT, which guarantees that Manila and Washington will come to the aid of the other should one of them be under attack.

At the height of the Ukraine war in March last year, former President Rodrigo Duterte was reportedly keen on letting the Americans use the country's facilities in case it "spills" to Asia.