Miriam Santiago: Where’s P500M worth of ammunition for Army?

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago is urging the Philippine Army to explain why bulk of the training ammunitions and equipment it was programmed to procure in 2014 had not been delivered.

Santiago, chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement, said she would file a resolution calling for a Senate investigation on the non-delivery of the military supplies, a failure which she said might put Filipino soldiers at risk.

“How can we expect our troops to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity when they have no ammunitions or equipment for training? Funds have been disbursed, why were supplies not delivered?” she said in statement on Monday.

The senator cited a recently released report of the Commission on Audit (COA), which showed that despite the P569.6 million the Army released to the Government Arsenal for ammunition, only P42.4 million worth of ammunitions were delivered in 2014.

The same COA report showed that of the P231.9 million worth of combat clothing and equipment the Army requested through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management from 2004 to 2011, P786,000 remained undelivered last year.

“The Philippines is threatened by a neighbor encroaching on its territory. We cannot afford to postpone—not even for a day—the delivery of much-needed ammunitions and equipment,” Santiago said.

The senator has been urging the military to boost its defenses against external threats, as she criticized the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the U.S.

As chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, Santiago also filed a resolution in July, expressing the sense of the Senate that the EDCA was invalid and ineffective unless concurred in by the Senate. The resolution was supported by 12 other senators. Maila Ager