The Senate Committee on Finance, after one hearing, on Tuesday endorsed early plenary approval of the P120-billion proposed defense budget for 2013, including additional allocations to upgrade the Armed Forces’s capability to protect and defend the country’s borders against foreign intrusions in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) territories.
Sen. Frank Drilon, committee chairman, told reporters that the authorized defense department budget for next year assured the availability of an initial P5-billion fund for the AFP modernization program with provisions for an additional P10-billion for the acquisition of equipment to improve border-defense capabilities.
Briefing reporters after presiding over the defense-budget hearing, the senator conceded that the national budget “has its limitations” but gave assurance that the P10-billion supplemental fund for the AFP modernization program could come from the current year’s savings.
Apart from proposals to earmark a portion of royalties earned from the Malampaya gas field for the AFP modernization, Drilon suggested that Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin also put in effect earlier suggestions to sell or at least put to “productive use” large tracts of idle land in military camps to raise more money for the upgrade program.
“We really have to look for funds for the AFP modernization program,” Gazmin said.
Drilon and Gazmin confirmed that at least P75 billion would be needed to fully upgrade and modernize the AFP in order to build a credible degree of defense at par with other neighboring countries.
Still, Drilon prodded defense officials to “think out of the box” in looking for other sources for the huge amount needed to complete the modernization plan other than the annual national budget, also known as the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The senator voiced concern that the defense department is likely to face budgetary problems since the GAA has limitations, citing the recurrent budget deficit which prevents the government from providing the full amount of P75 billion required for the AFP upgrade to balance internal security and territorial security concerns.
It was pointed out at the hearing that under the 2013 budget, only P5 billion was initially earmarked for the AFP Modernization Program, while the other P10 billion was lodged under the Unprogrammed-Fund portion in the budget in which the release is subject to the availability of funds, as noted by Drilon.
“The release of this P10 billion will depend upon the level of deficit we will be incurring. 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,” the senator said.
Drilon said this was why he was prodding Gazmin and the rest of the AFP top brass to “look for funds similar to the system in the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, where the sales of military lands were used to fund the modernization program.”
“We are looking at how the excess lands in the military camp can be made more productive to fund the modernization program in order that we can strengthen our defense system,” said Drilon. “It is not only the sale of the military assets that can be the source of funds. Military assets are vast of lands which can be made productive and be the source of modernization program,” he added.
-BusinessMirror-
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