The Department of National Defense (DND) is expecting that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will lay down his foreign policy on his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 25, so that it could align its defense and security priorities in the next six years.

DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said the department will now focus on external territorial defense after putting much weight on internal security operations during the past administration.

“Primarily we are just waiting for his instructions especially on territorial defense. From his foreign policy, we will base our own policies,” he said in a Laging Handa television interview on Friday, July 22.

DND Officer-in-Charge Jose Faustino Jr. previously stated that Marcos had instructed him to ensure that “not a square inch of what is ours shall be ceded to anyone.”

“The DND and AFP are here to protect our territory and sovereign rights. Patrol operations will continue in our territorial waters and in our EEZ and according to our President, we will see to it that not even a square inch of our territory will be lost until President Marcos is in power,” Andolong said.

The directive of Marcos on the issue in the West Philippine Sea will surely be anticipated by the DND and AFP especially as tension between the Philippines and China over a maritime row escalated recently after Beijing rejected anew a 2016 ruling that invalidated their claims in the disputed waters.

“We want to hear from him what direction will the DND and AFP take,” Andolong stated.