That AFP Boracay retreat

A 60-room resort-hotel or "rest house" in Boracay island, which reportedly has been donated by a Cebu-based private foundation to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, will be built despite questions about the project’s propriety, consistency with Presidential directives on austerity in government and the AFP’s own sense of priorities, given the other more urgent needs of our soldiers.

As advertised, largely by the project’s biggest booster, Central Command chief Lieutenant General Emmanuel Teodosio, the facility will be available to all AFP personnel and their families, regardless of rank. As he puts it: "The hotel is for the morale and rest and recreational needs of ordinary soldiers and their families who could only dream of staying in Boracay."

The resort-hotel project, Gen. Teodosio maintains, was begun at the initiative of a private foundation in Cebu, the Kaibigan ng mga Kawal sa Kapuluan, which has dedicated itself to helping soldiers recover from the rigors of the battlefield by providing facilities for rest and recreation (R and R). In that way, KKK president Nelson Yuvallos told us during our "Viewpoint" program on the ABS-CBN News Channel last Thursday night, military families could also spend quality time together, thus helping prevent the break-ups and alleviating the tensions that result from long periods of time spent apart from each other.

Moreover, Yuvallos and Central Command public information officer Lt. Colonel Jefferson Omandam affirmed, no public money was or will be disbursed for the project, All construction requirements will be met by private donations, in cash or in kind. The land on which the resort will be built will be donated (it hasn’t yet, formally) by the KKK. So far, one thousand square meters have been purchased by the foundation at the "very favorable price" of P1,400 per square meter from a sympathetic landowner who shares the KKK’s vision about helping our soldiers.

An additional 900 square meters of land will be purchased for the balance of the project. So far, only 10 rooms of the planned 60 have been built at the cost of P2 million. The donated money and materials have run out and the foundation is scrambling to put together more resources. The KKK says the project will cost a total of P10 million.

Let me make it clear at the outset that I do not dispute the need for R and R facilities for our soldiers, particularly the officers, enlisted men and draftees who constantly risk life and limb out there in battle with the New People’s Army and Muslim renegades. The fat cats who ride desks and never venture out of heavily-guarded military camps in comfortable Metro Manila and the nation’s cities do not need R and R, as their current positions are a never-ending, and lucrative, R and R adventure anyway.

But it does no good to compare our AFP’s recreational facilities with those of the United States Armed Forces or, indeed, any of the armed forces of developed nations. Their soldiers do not want for basics such as battlefield equipment, medical facilities and housing provisions for men and women in uniform and their dependents. Opportunities for rest and recreation are merely the icing on the cake. For those soldiers, a military career is a dignified and fulfilling option which is protected by a grateful government and nation which know the value of a credible and sustained national defense structure.

Still, no matter what the economic situation of our country and our armed forces, we do need to provide R and R facilities, no matter how humble. But Boracay? Against those somewhat puzzling background circumstances which are only now coming to light about the construction of this facility? That’s an entirely different matter.

To put it mildly, I’m not sure the AFP has its story straight on this matter. To start with, it appears it is not an AFP project at all. How can it be, when neither the office of the Commander in Chief in Malacanang, nor the Secretary of National Defense, nor the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines himself, knew anything about it.

They didn’t even know anything about that putative benefactor, the generous KKK, until a "soft launch" ceremony was held which was graced by no less than the President herself as the honored guest. Another guest was the Governor of the Province of Aklan, where Boracay Island is located. In answer to subsequent media queries about building permits and environmental clearances, both of which are among myriad elementary documents lacking in this project, the Governor professed utter ignorance.

There are intimations that the presence of the Commander-in-Chief, the Provincial Governor and the Secretary of Tourism – I haven’t been able to verify whether the AFP chief was in attendance at the soft launch, but the head of the Central Command was – has corrected whatever deficiencies there were and, anyway, the motives of the project were noble and pure.

Well, I’m pretty sure that we’re still a government of laws, and not of faits accompli. And last time I checked, no matter how inconvenient, compliance with government regulations is mandatory, even for AFP projects. Why, the KKK didn’t even bother to register as a non-stock, non-profit foundation. How this project even got off the ground, not to mention get completed in virtual absolute secrecy, will remain one of life’s enduring mysteries.

But my biggest beef has to do with the priority given this project by Gen. Teodosio and the KKK over more urgent basics such as adequate armament and other equipment for men in the battlefield. In addition, the Feliciano Commission stressed the shocking inadequacy of medical facilities to treat our wounded soldiers.

Recently, Time magazine had a cover article on the AFP that must have been profoundly embarrassing to our government and military establishment. Time noted how, of all military forces in the region, ours lags behind in terms of basic equipment for our soldiers. It discussed, obviously, the corruption in the officer corps but put special emphasis burden on the case of Lt. Col. Dennis Villanueva, who died in an engagement with NPA rebels. He died, arguably not because of fatal battle wounds, but for a grotesque lack of timely medical attention.

If KKK really wants to help, and not, as many suspect, merely suck up to its golfing buddies among the generals and colonels based in Cebu, it should turn its attention to the verifiably urgent needs of the ordinary soldiers. Otherwise, the comment of retired Army captain and irrepressible AFP critic Rene Jarque becomes relevant.

Captain Jarque suggested that AFP chief Gen. Abu, who has not ventured an intelligible opinion on this matter, ask himself whether the Boracay facility is "good for the morale and welfare of the soldier, or good only for the morale and welfare of the generals or the contractors."