AFP marks 73rd anniversary tomorrow

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is holding its 73rd anniversary on Monday complete with the traditional military parade and a “flyby,” a practice shelved for several years in line with the military’s austerity measures.

Informed sources questioning the wisdom behind reliving this very expensive military formation, said the AFP stands to spend millions of pesos for this year’s anniversary where President Arroyo as commander-in-chief would be the guest of honor and speaker.

“Past AFP parades have been cancelled to save money, bakit ngayon binubuhay (why relive it now?) Eh panahon pa nina Abaya, Abu, Senga at Esperon inalis na ito para yong perang matipid ay mapupunta sa mga kailangan ng sundalo (This was abandoned during the time of Abaya, Abu, Senga, and Esperon so that the money saved will go to the needs of the soldiers),” one officer lamented.

He was referring to the actions made by previous AFP chiefs, retired Generals Narciso Abaya, Efren Abu, Generoso Senga and Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

All four have ordered the cancellation of grand military AFP anniversaries and other similar activities to save money to be used for other pressing military needs such as procurement of guns and bullets and other logistical support to ground troops.

Another officer pointed out that the flyby is very costly not to mention the operational cost the AFP has put up in assembling the troops, including expenses for transporting the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadets from Baguio City to Manila, during practice.

He said the traditional military parade is ill-timed citing the needs of the soldiers on the ground.

“Why should we have flyby? We don’t need a show here. Is there anything the Air Force could brag about? The expenses for the personnel are just too big,” he said in Filipino.

Offering a modest estimate, he said the AFP anniversary military parade will cost more than P1 million or even higher if practices are included.