Gazmin woes: All plans but lack funds to buy arms

By Macon Ramos-Araneta | Posted on September 12, 2012 |

The Defense Department on Tuesday said a lack of funds was stopping it from procuring weapons such as warships and fighter planes from Italy, France, South Korea and the United Kingdom that would boost the Philippines’ ability to guard and defend its territory.
Interviewed after the Senate finance committee hearing on the department’s proposed budget, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the country needed fighter jets and missile-firing gunboats, but the problem was “we don’t have the funds to buy them.”
He said there were ongoing negotiations for the procurement of a warship from Italy and they were “short of signing the contract,” while the purchase of fighter jets remained “on the drawing board.”
Gazmin and the other military officials present during the budget hearing, however, did not say how much money they needed to buy such weapons and equipment.
Senator Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate’s finance committee, said the Defense Department needed at least P75 billion in the next five years to upgrade and modernize the Armed Forces and to build a credible defense capability.
Gazmin said that, based on Drilon’s amount, his department should be able to secure an annual budget of P15 billion from the General Appropriations Act.
But Drilon said the Defense Department might face a budget-related problem since the GAA may not be able to provide in full the P75 billion to boost the Armed Forces’ defense capability.
Only P5 billion has been earmarked for the military’s modernization for 2013, while the other P10 billion is lodged under the “unprogrammed” fund item in the budget, and which could only be released if funds were available.
“If there is enough fiscal space, that can be funded, but if not, we have to look for other means to fund this equally important endeavor,” Drilon said.
“It’s principally a question of where to source these funds because the budget would have limitations on the resources of funds and our deficit level.”
Drilon said the Budget Department could get the funds from realignment of items that might not be used in 2012. He challenged the Defense Department to “think out of the box” to find out where to get the money.
“I challenge Secretary Gazmin and the rest of the AFP officials to look for funds similar to the system in the Bases Conversion Development Authority where the sales of military lands were used to fund the modernization program,” Drilon said.
“We are looking at how the excess lands in the military camps can be made more productive to fund the modernization program in order to strengthen our defense system.”
Said Gazmin: “We are really having difficulty to producing [the funds], so we are finding other means.”
He said the military still had many pieces of property that could be sold or leased, including golf courses and military camps. (END)