DND, AFP get $4 million in US grants to improve intelligence

The United States is extending some $4 million in assistance to help the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) upgrade its intelligence services, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz revealed yesterday.

"The US is assisting us here in our 10-year intelligence reform effort and the money will also be used for improving intelligence analysis," Cruz said.

He said the US grant would greatly boost the 10-year reform program for the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

The reform draft is being finalized by the Department of National Defense (DND) under the Philippine Defense Reform Program (PDRP).

The assistance came as the ISAFP found itself embroiled in controversies, including alleged misuse of intelligence funds and the "Hello Garci" wiretapping scandal.

The military hierarchy also had its share of scandals involving some of its top officials, notably retired Army general Carlos Garcia that allegedly involved some US grants to the military.

The AFP said the US gave $30 million under its Foreign Military Financing program last year, including $4 million for the refurbishment of a C-130 cargo plane of the Air Force.

Ongoing Philippine-US military cooperative programs include the PDRP; counter-terrorism training, annual exercises, education and training, advice and support for logistics, engineering, equipment, and maintenance; and civilian assistance programs such as medical, dental, and veterinarian clinics, the US Embassy said in a recent statement.

The Philippines and the US last month forged a new security pact to complement their 51-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty to address post-Cold War and new security threats including terrorism, transnational crimes, drug trafficking and disease epidemics.

Cruz said the grant would be used to upgrade processing and analysis of intelligence reports as well as the purchase of new equipment.

Though Cruz refused to elaborate, he said the US grant will just upgrade "the basic intelligence equipment that we are sorely lacking."

He said one of the main efforts of the intelligence reform program is to create a team of analysts to provide the necessary information to each of the four AFP major commands for their ground units.

ISAFP chief Commodore Leonardo Calderon said the improvement will focus on "mobility" in terms of intelligence gathering.

Cruz and Calderon also disclosed plans to create careers in intelligence gathering.

The two officials said one can make a career in intelligence all the way up unlike the present system where an officer could spend two years in intelligence services before being transferred to command a battalion in the next assignment.

Such changes in assignments, Calderon pointed out, sometimes create "disruptions" in ongoing intelligence work.