Villar wants more funding for AFP modernization next year

Saying that soldiers should not be sent to battle ill-equipped, Senate President Manny Villar called for the full implementation of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"Even in the absence of internal conflict and terror threats, the country should maintain "respectable air and naval assets" to deter poachers from plundering the country's rich fishing grounds," Villar added.

Villar said a "modernized military" will also prevent smugglers "from piercing the country's porous borders and commit economic sabotage." Villar said the P5 billion annual allocation for AFP modernization is simply not enough, "considering the huge backlog in military weaponry."

"If we include needs of our soldiers such as better boots and bullets that don't misfire, then the need is indeed great," he said. Villar proposed that part of savings from debt service, which so far has reached P20 billion on the back of a strong peso be given for AFP modernization.

He rued the fact that while former military bases, whose conversion to civilian uses were premised on the promise that proceeds will be used to buy equipment for the armed services, have become business districts, "their supposed beneficiaries, the soldiers, still have to toil using hand-me-down planes and mortars that don't fire."

Villar urged Malacañang "to walk its talk" and increase the AFP modernization fund next year.

Per the announcement of the Department of Budget and Management, the DND has a budget of P52 billion in 2008. Villar said allowing "poorly armed soldiers to fight" will be "counterproductive in the long run as they will be spending more time and taxpayers will be spending more money in fighting terrorist groups."

"But to make sure that appropriations for the military would all go to the frontlines, instead of just trickling down to it, transparency in procurement of AFP goods must be observed," the Nacionalista Party president said.

"This will be good for the morale of our soldiers. They should not be made to fight in two fronts: against waste in the resources of the army, and against terrorists bent on wasting them," Villar said.