DEPARTMENT of National Defense officer-in-charge Jose Faustino Jr. has asked the military to come up with a list of equipment for acquisition using the $100 million (about P5.8 billion) in military aid pledged by the United States.
“We are now trying to come up with (a list),” Faustino told reporters during an interview at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija last Wednesday.
Last October 14, Ambassador MaryKay Carlson said the US government has made available $100 million in foreign military financing for Philippine military spending.
Carlson said the Philippines could use the allocation to “offset” its decision to scrap a P12.7 billion contract with Russia to buy 16 heavy-lift helicopters, plus one freebie.
Last January, the defense department made a down payment of P2 billion, two months after signing the helicopter deal. The DND wants the contract terminated to avoid possible US sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 that prohibits countries from purchasing Russian military hardware.
Faustino said the US and other countries have offered to supply heavy-lift helicopters in place of the Mi-17 helicopters supposed to be acquired from Russia’s Sovtechnoexport LLC.
“There are talks about Chinook (Boeing CH-47 helicopters from US) but nothing is final yet on that,” said Faustino, without naming the other countries that made the offer.
Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr said the Army wants to have more aircraft for the use of its Aviation Regiment, which currently has only six helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Brawner said the Army’s request for funding so it can buy more aircraft next year was turned down by Congress.
“Unfortunately, it was not approved by Congress so what we are going to do is to try to include the purchase of aircraft for the Philippine Army in our modernization program,” said Brawner.
The Armed Forces has been getting yearly allocation to finance its modernization program, on top of regular budget it is getting through the General Appropriations Act.
Brawner admitted that getting a budget for the acquisition of additional Army aircraft will be difficult due to the “old thinking that anything that flies belong to the Air Force.”
“We are trying to convince the decision-makers (to let Army have additional aircraft) and very fortunately we heard secretary (officer-in-charge) Faustino say earlier that we are no longer going to hear comments ‘why the Army needs planes or helicopters’ because the Army really needs air assets,” said Brawner, adding they need Blackhawk helicopters.
“In terms of fixed-wing aircraft, what we want would be multi-role, multi-purpose (aircraft) in a sense that we can use them in airborne training and when there are disasters, we can use them to transport relief goods to areas in need,” said Brawner.
