Claim: The Philippines announced that it won’t buy any arms from Israel anymore.
Conclusion: The claim is misleading. The Philippines has indeed decided against entering into new arms contracts with Israeli companies, however this is not to be interpreted as a permanent ban.
Rating: Misleading — 
Several social media users have shared a claim regarding The Philippines announcing that it won’t buy weapons from Israel anymore. Verified X user ‘GlobalUpdates24’ shared such a claim with the caption: “Philippines announced that it won’t buy arms from Israel anymore. Israel is getting alienated in the world rapidly.” Published on 18 August, this post gained 653,000 views and can be viewed here.
🇵🇭 BREAKING –
Philippines announced that it won’t buy arms from Israel anymore
Israel is getting alienated in the world rapidly pic.twitter.com/vOrk1k8fIj
— Global UPDATES (@GlobalUpdates24) September 18, 2025
Other users across Facebook and Instagram have also shared similar claims which can be viewed here and here
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to fact check this claim and found that it is misleading. While the Philippines has decided not to enter new arms contracts with Israel and continues the old ones, this decision is not permanent and only for the time being due to supply chain issues.
We first conducted a keyword search with the phrase “Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Israel arms contract” to learn about the issue. Several media outlets including ABS-CBN have reported his statements which can be viewed here.
On 16 September, 2025, Teodoro stated, “We have no new contracts with any Israel-based companies,” during a House Committee hearing, citing conflict-related supply risks and the need for reliable partners. View the clip of him saying this below:
Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro confirmed that there are no new contracts with Israeli firms but acknowledged the Philippine Army continues to procure precision-guided munitions from Elbit Systems, an Israel-based weapons dealer, as part of earlier acquisitions. @ABSCBNNews pic.twitter.com/z2iZ8s6HpH
— Francis Orcio (@francisorcio) September 16, 2025
Teodoro has clarified it’s about avoiding new dependencies amid the war, not a blanket prohibition that could never be revisited post-conflict. A report published by Anadolu Ajansi states how Teodoro noted that the war has affected Israel’s ability to meet obligations, making it a “lesson learned” for them for future procurements.
However, no official source indicates this is an irreversible policy; it’s presented as a pragmatic response to current geopolitical realities, with potential for resumption if conditions change. The policy excludes new systems but allows procurement for maintaining current platforms, as seen in the recent August 2025 Elbit deal for munitions.
While there were some ethical concerns raised by Kabataan Party-list Representative Renee Louise Co, nowhere did Teodoro mention that this decision was due to a genocide in Gaza or war crimes by Israel, but was purely a supply chain issue since Israel was at war. View a snippet from a report by Manila Bulletin below:
There is no such absolute ban by the Philippines. While there were some ethical concerns by Philippines lawmakers, this decision was not due to a moral or political boycott. It was simply because of reliability concerns and would be continued as part of earlier acquisitions because the Philippines is in “no position to decommission the capabilities, because of the arrangement that was made before, now stuck with it”.
Hence, the claim is misleading.
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