Senate open to hike in AFP weapons fund

MORE WEAPONS NEEDED Tanks join a military parade in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. —Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Francis Escudero remains open to increasing the funding for the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Modernization Program if the military’s wish list includes new weapons technology.

The Senate President said newer weaponry might be cheaper and more efficient and he asked the AFP to be more mindful of their spending, particularly in buying new technology.

“Every time there is a new chief of staff, the components of modernization change,” Escudero said, weighing in on a proposed increase in the military’s modernization budget in both houses of Congress.

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“Every administration comes in with a new plan. That is why modernization cannot be planned by just one administration because after five or six years, new technology might come out,” he said.

Escudero said the Senate is tasked with ensuring that the 2025 allocation for the AFP modernization program is maximized for the intended upgrade of military armaments.

“We cannot look at and give funding to AFP modernization with closed eyes because the track record of the DND (Department of National Defense) and the AFP in the past has not always been maintained,” Escudero said.

For instance, the Senate President said the AFP purchased P8 billion worth of missiles from India three years ago that are still stockpiled in a warehouse today because it failed to allocate funding for the storage of the missiles in a base in Zambales.

Cut restoration

“I hope the committee would consider that when it decides on adding and how it will spend the additional and original budget of P40 billion,” Escudero said.

Sen. JV Ejercito, in a radio interview on Sunday, expressed support for an increase in the DND budget after it was cut by P10 billion last year.

“Being one of the supporters I will appeal that additional funding be given to the modernization menu, especially our external defense. We will do our best to propose that [the] AFP modernization budget be increased,” he said.

The government proposed a P50-billion AFP modernization budget for 2024, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) claimed the House of Representatives reduced it to P40 billion.

In August, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, who is seeking funding for new forward bases in the West Philippine Sea, said the 2025 budget bill was increased to P50 billion.

“The amount is 25 percent, or P10 billion, higher than the P40 billion appropriation for the acquisition and upgrading of military hardware and systems in the 2024 national budget,” Pimentel said last August.

But House Bill No. 10800 under committee report No. 335 which contained the 2025 General Appropriations Bill still showed P40 billion as the proposed modernization fund.

Walk the talk

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa asked the DBM to clarify the confusion over the military’s modernization funds for 2025.

Dela Rosa noted the P10-billion cut in the 2025 budget.

“What can we do to increase the funding for our defense sector, and where can we obtain funds to finally modernize the armed forces, especially now that the DND has adopted the comprehensive archipelagic defense concept?” Dela Rosa asked during budget deliberations last week.

“Our immediate reaction is always like this: we condemn in the highest term this incident and we have to see to it that we have to modernize our Philippine Navy. This is the line that we always [say] as a politician or legislator.

“[But when budget deliberations come,] we are reducing P10 billion from the budget of the national defense. There is always a contradiction in what we say and what we do,” Dela Rosa said.