|
By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will
be embarking on a spending spree with President Arroyo approving on
Friday a P10-billion shopping list for military hardware.
The President and concurrent defense secretary
gave AFP brass the green light to bid out 14 contracts.
Mrs. Arroyo also on Friday vowed to defeat
communist and secessionist rebels in Mindanao before her term of
office ends in 2010.
A successful anti-insurgency campaign, she said,
would “establish a secure environment conducive to national
development.”
The AFP chief, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
said the planned purchases would be used “for internal security
operations.”
High on the AFP’s shopping list are utility
and attack helicopters with night flying capabilities, watercraft
for riverine patrols, modern communication equipments, squad
automatic rifles and hi-tech bomb detection equipment.
Esperon could not hide his excitement.
“They [requests for purchase] were approved in
juts one day . . . it’s a record time. Suddenly we are [now]
ordering P10-billion worth of [military] equipments,” Esperon
said.
The military, he added, expects deliveries
either by April or July 2007 if the bidding process proceeds
smoothly.
The AFP vice-chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Antonio
Romero, who heads the military’s capability-upgrade program, said
they only have P5 billion and would have to wait for the release of
the remainder.
But Esperon said President Arroyo called up
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya during the pre-procurement
conference, asking him to expedite release of the P5-billion balance
in the purchase budget.
He said the first P5 billion would be enough for
the purchase of 10 of the 14 items on the AFP’s shopping list.
The defense department’s bids and awards
committee will approve contracts that would worth P50 million and
above while the AFP bids and awards committee will handle the
contracts below the said amount.
|
