Roundtable with Secretary Delfin Lorenzana
The CSIS Southeast Asia Program was pleased to present a roundtable with Secretary Delfin Negrillo Lorenzana, 36th Secretary of National Defense of the Republic of the Philippines as part of the CSIS U.S.-Philippines Strategic Initiative. Secretary Lorenzana discussed his views on Philippine-U.S. military cooperation, the role of Philippines and the Philippine-U.S. alliance in the Indo-Pacific strategy, and common security challenges, including counterterrorism, the South China Sea, and North Korea.
Secretary Delfin Negrillo Lorenzana became the 36th Secretary of National Defense on 30 June 2016, bringing to the Department his expertise in national defense and security, special operations, foreign military affairs, public diplomacy, veterans affairs and strategic leadership. He entered the Philippine Military Academy in 1969 and graduated in 1973 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Philippine Army. Over the course of 29 years in uniform, Secretary Lorenzana has commanded army infantry units from platoon to Brigade, the Armor Brigade and the Army Special Operations Command. He also served in staff positions at Battalion and Brigade Headquarters, Army Headquarters and General Headquarters. His last posting was as Defense Attaché in Washington DC from 2002 to 2004 where he retired from active military service. Upon retirement from the military service he was designated as Head, Office of Veterans Affairs at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. a designation which he held until June 2016. As Head of the Office of Veterans Affairs where he played an important role in lobbying for the passage of two landmark US legislations for the Filipino WW2 veterans: the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund in 2009 awarding USD265M to surviving WW2 veterans and the conferment of the Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino WW2 veterans in 2016.
