PH defense, military favor armors over weapons to fight terrorism

Philippine Army soldiers (Photo from the Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas’ official Facebook page)

MANILA – The Philippine defense and military officials favored the purchase of body armors including helmets, night-vision goggles and radios rather than weapons from an Israel deal as they prioritized fighting the threat of terrorism than the Chinese incursion in the Spratly Islands.

According to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. and Army Commander Maj. Gen. Hernando Iriberri opted to remove the shore-based missile system (SBMS) and the antiaircraft missile systems from the list of military hardware the country sought to purchase for the Armed Forces modernization program.

“This is due to the rapid change in the internal security landscape brought about by the issues of the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the prevalent use of the IED (improvised explosive device) of the threat groups that inflicted significant casualties on our troops. The emerging security situation is further driven by the continuous military operations against the BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) and ASG (Abu Sayaff Group),” Iriberri said in a letter to Catapang, adding that it was ‘more appropriate’ to ‘fill the gaps’ in the battlefield equipments ‘in view of clear, present and continuing occurrences of terrorist acts.’

Gazmin, Catapang and Iriberri then realigned the P6.5-billion budget supposedly for the SBMS to the new list of military equipment including 832 marksmen rifles worth P149.76 million; two chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear (CBRN) protective gears worth P103.402 million; and 32 sniper weapons systems worth P17.28 million.

The new equipments will be included in the previous list of military items to be purchased which already incorporated 4,464 night fighting systems worth P1.116 billion, 1,446 handheld radios worth P433 million and 60 HF radios worth P144 million.

Although the change in the list of military hardware to be purchased was said to be intended to fight terrorism, an Inquirer source claimed that it was actually intended to gain commissions.

“They want to realign the funds because they want to earn a windfall from commissions. [The Israeli negotiation was] a government-to-government contract so there was zero commission,” the source said.

Meanwhile, Israel reminded the Philippines of the SBMS contract.

“We optimistically hope for the timely issuance of the notice of award and contract for your SBMS acquisition so that we may be honored to have the SBMS infrastructure realized, delivered, and installed during your incumbency and just in time for the Apec (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in the Philippines,” Israel Military Industries president Eal Ben Haim said in a letter to President Benigno Aquino III, adding that the SBMS was a ‘formidable defense and tested interceptor.’

Aquino, for his part, ordered the review of the SBMS deal but later on approved the military items realignment.