Teodoro: Doubling military budget still not enough to modernize

MANILA, Philippines – Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro admitted yesterday that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) lacks resources to purchase essential equipment, and doubling its allocation in the next six years will not help modernize the military to bring it to the same level as the defense forces of countries in the region.

Teodoro gave his reaction during an interview on the weekly radio program “Para sa Iyo Bayan” of Vice President Noli de Castro regarding former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz’s comment on ANC that the military needs additional funding to become effective.

“In general, all of the obligations of the military are being responded to, although we admit that there are still deficiencies. This is what the modernization program and capability upgrading project of the government is trying to answer by coming up with a P5-billion yearly allocation,” Teodoro said.

On the current conflict in Mindanao, Teodoro explained that the resources and the equipment for internal security are enough since the military is not dealing with external defense.

Cruz had said the military’s funding should be increased to P10 billion annually for the next six years in order to modernize.

In 2007, Teodoro said a P5-billion budget was approved for the defense department and President Arroyo released another P5 billion from the President’s fund to buy helicopters and other equipment.

But he said the bidding for the helicopters was cancelled. He said the DND is now ready for the bidding.

He assured companies that will join the bidding for the P1.2-billion worth of night-capable attack helicopters that the process is fair and they would all start on equal footing.

Teodoro said a private company that offered the aircraft last January even if there was no contract awarded yet should be investigated.

The DND had scrapped the bidding for P1.2-billion worth of night-capable attack helicopters after several irregularities were unearthed.

Defense Undersecretary Ariston delos Reyes, who led the investigation, said the bidding for the six helicopters was declared null and void after it was found that the helicopters offered by Asian Aerospace Corp. did not meet the technical specifications required by the Air Force.

Investigations revealed that the MD530F helicopter offered by Asian Aerospace Corp., the only company that pre-qualified in the bidding process, did not meet the 3,000 lbs. payload required by the PAF.             

Revitalize ROTC

Meanwhile, the AFP is conducting public consultations for the revision of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) aimed at empowering and developing the military’s reserve command, with emphasis on the importance of the Reserved Officers Training Course (ROTC) for college students.

Maj. Lucio Samaco, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Reservists and Reserve Force Development (J8), said a proposal to revise the existing IRRs for reservists seeks to make the National Service Training Program (NSTP) more attuned to the needs of the times.

“This could be achieved by enhancing the three components of the program namely ROTC, Literacy Training Service (LTS) and Community Welfare Training Service (CWTS),” Samaco said.

Over the past weeks, military reservists have been undergoing basic military training in various military camps in the country.

The training, which includes maneuvering and gun handling, comes at a time when most of the AFP regular troops are being dispatched to Mindanao.

Unlike before when ROTC was a pre-requisite for male students, its abolition made it purely voluntary.

However, with the brewing trouble in Mindanao, defense and military officials, as well as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), saw the need for the revision of the IRR on reservists and the NSTP.

The four agencies have been sponsoring dialogues with all the stakeholders to revise the IRR as these agencies are all in agreement that the reserve force is a major source of military officers.

“Revitalizing the ROTC program as the source of the citizen armed forces is in response to the requirements of law that every Filipino should be prepared to defend the nation when the need arises,” Samaco said. – Jaime Laude