By means of Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
Filipino legislators must allocate sufficient defense budget and reforms of legislation within safety agencies to promote the army modernization program in the midst of deteriorating tensions with China, according to a congress-thinking tank.
The legislators must also exercise their supervisory powers on the upgrades of the armed forces of the Philippines (AFP) by checking whether their planned purchases are in accordance with the “strategic needs” of the country to waste expenditure, conference policy and the budget investigation department (CPBRD) to prevent. said in a paper in February.
“Increasing financing is not enough to guarantee the success of the AFP modernization program”, said CPBRD authors Byron M. Bicencio, Arsenia S. Gonzales, Prince Louie B. Mamhot and Noel H. Sempio in the 23-page discussion document .
“What is necessary at the same time are the aim and taking internal reforms by the AFP to be … Responding to the challenges of the time and to ensure that they spend and acquire the right equipment,” they added.
Manila and Beijing have been in Loggerheads about disputed characteristics in the South Chinese Sea, which almost allows Beijing in its entirety. A tribunal supported by the United Nations in The Hague in 2016 has become the claim of China to be illegal.
The Philippines are at the end of his military modernization program called “Horizon”, which started in 2012 when the tensions with China flared up after a navy distance in Scarborough Shoal in the South Chinese Sea. In the following decade, Manila has reserved around $ 35 billion for military upgrades.
According to the House of Representatives, the Filipino government has delivered a P2.1 trillion financing deficit for the modernization effort for the modernization effort. Since 2002, around P348 billion has been spent on military hardware upgrades, it added.
“It is necessary that the AFP modernization program receives sufficient financing to enable the AFP to acquire the necessary possibilities to defend the country against both internal and external threats,” said it.
But legislators must ensure that public funds are “wisely spent” on military hardware, added the think tank, and insisted on them not to take proposed upgrades at the nominal value.
“It must be ensured that vital budgetary resources are wisely spent on the right arms, equipment and hardware in the fiThe first place, “said the think tank. “The modernization of the AFP may not be taken from a ‘wish list of equipment’, but from a good decision -making process … that would identify their strategic needs.”
“Defense reforms must tend to effective communication between the order of the high military staff and political leaders across the line,” said Joshua Bernard B. Espeña, an international relationships at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, in a Facebook Messenger -Chat.
“The congress must assess how each part of the bureaucracy provides its mandate with efficiency and coordination, especially when protecting corruption and hassle on expenditure problems such as acquisitions, logistics management, information activities, training and international assignments,” he added.
“This is crucial how defense missions require a delicate balance between speed and caution in the way of decision -making.”
AFP Staff Chef Romeo S. Brawner, Jr. Last week said that the army looks at extra Brahmos anti-ship missiles from India and at least two submarines.
The Congress must also change the National Defense Act of 1935, which the foundation has laid for the military structure and the defense policy of the Philippines, the CPBRD said.
“Faced with a maritime issue, the Philippines should go from essentially ‘army -oriented’ and urgently have to improve the possibilities of both his navy and air force to defend his seas,” it added.
There is also a need to make a law that would harmonize and streamline the policy authority of the Ministry of Defense for a more coordinated defense attitude, the CPBRD said.
“New defense policy, principles and concepts have also been introduced and accepted over the years … The structure, powers and functions, operations and accountability of the various defense settings change considerably,” it added.
The think tank also said that the government should encourage the development of the domestic defense industry by supporting them under a law that requires a self-reliant defense attitude.
“This can entail the creation of special defense -economic zones and the further development of the shipbuilding industry, important measures that can be pursued by the congress,” it added.