AFP spends P500 M a year on VIP details

DAVAO CITY – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reportedly spends at least P500 million of its annual budget to pay for military personnel detailed as VIP (very important person) escorts.

A ranking official disclosed the military is using up a large amount of its P80-billion budget for military and civilian personnel detailed as VIP security escorts.

The so-called VIPs include businessmen, politicians and retired generals who still demand security escorts long after they have left the service.

Some AFP personnel who were detailed as security escorts of politicians in the countryside unwittingly became part of their so-called private armies, the source said.

The same official told The STAR that former ranking officials, including those still in active service, are employing the services of Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) militiamen to guard their farms in the provinces.

The source explained CAFGU militiamen receive P1,800 in allowances from the AFP in serving the village defense system.

But some CAFGU militiamen are being utilized as security guards by active and retired military officers.

The source cited an Army division chief in the Visayas who deployed at least 20 CAFGUs to secure his farm.

AFP chief Gen. Efren Abu earlier ordered military personnel and militiamen detailed as security men to report back to their mother units.

Abu also scrapped the gasoline allowances of retired military officials which resulted in 7,000 liters of fuel being saved since the order was implemented last year.

The source, however, noted that nothing happened after Abu issued the recall order of military personnel.

The source explained most of the VIPs managed to convince the AFP to let them keep their military security escorts.

"If you sum up the total number of AFP men who have been detailed as security escorts of these VIPs, you would have an entire battalion of them. But then they should be fighting the enemies of the state and not serving as security escorts of a few privileged individuals," the same source said.

Of the servicemen detailed as security escorts, over 300 are from the Army while the rest are Air Force and Navy personnel.

The source said even the wives of retired military officers are employing the services of the military security escorts.

"You should see how these wives complain about their security escorts and that they want them changed as if they were still in the service. They should not be doing that at all," the source told The STAR.