FROM a macro viewpoint, the allocation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) budget is like this: 70 percent goes to personnel, 20 percent to operations and 10 percent to capital outlay.
There are 129,700 officers and personnel in the military organization.
The AFP still has to see the completion of its modernization plan. But every administration after Edsa 1 has seen to increasing its overall budget: Aquino—P70,775,303,000 (1988-1991); Ramos—P210,395,454,000 (1992-1998); Estrada—P86 billion over two and a half years; and Arroyo—more or less P600 billion (2001-2010).
Similarly, all four past presidents increased the budget of the police: Aquino (P44,273,704,000); Ramos (P85,319,818,000); Estrada (estimated at P42 billion); and Arroyo (estimated at P500 billion).
For the current year, President Aquino has earmarked a budget of P104.7 billion and P88.2 billion, respectively, for the Department of National Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government. This is approximately a twelvefold increase, compared with the military budget of P8 billion during the last year of Marcos (1985-1986).
Some groups critical of the budget increases claim that even if inflation, devaluation and other variables were considered, the post-Marcos era military budget allocations were still very high, considering that the nature of the threats to security and public order have remained practically the same.
Critics, likewise, said that for a country whose poverty level affects nearly 70 percent of its almost 100 million population, spending too much for the armed services is a strong manifestation of poor political and economic judgment.
Where the money goes
There is an intricate, multilayered command organization where the military budget is spent, beginning at the general headquarters (GHQ) in Camp Aguinaldo.
In the GHQ, you will find there the chief of staff, the vice chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff, the Office of the AFP Command Center, the Office of the Secretary Joint Staff and three other offices. Below them are the nine personal staff, nine coordinating staff and 15 special staff manned by 39 ranking officers.
The chief of staff’s position has four stars (general); the vice chief of staff, three stars (lieutenant general); and the rest of the general staff, two stars (major general).
Below the GHQ are the three major service commands: Army, Navy and Air Force, each commanded by a lieutenant general; eight Unified Commands, each commanded also by a lieutenant general; and 19 Wide-Support and Separate Units, each commanded by either a major general or a brigadier general (one star). The superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy during Arroyo’s time carried a rank of a three-star (rear admiral). Under the Aquino administration, the same post carries only two stars.
Of the three major service commands, the Army has the biggest organization with 10 divisions, 30 brigades and 90 battalions. A major general commands each division, while each brigade is under a brigadier general.
Arroyo’s revolving door
The public image of the AFP probably faced its greatest challenge under the Arroyo administration, when allegations of favoritism and patronage put the integrity of the entire military organization under question.
Arroyo drew the ire of critics for her so-called revolving-door policy, so described because of the high rate of turnover among generals and other field-grade officers (from major to star rank).
In the course of the nine-year Arroyo presidency, the chief of staff position changed hands nine times—a first in the AFP’s history.
It was widely perceived that the nine chiefs of staff—Generals Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu, Benjamin Defensor, Dionisio Santiago, Efren Abu, Narcisco Abaya, Generoso Senga, Hermogenes Esperon and Alexander Yano—enjoyed the patronage and support of Arroyo in exchange for their loyalty to her.
Critics said the “open-door policy” carried corresponding budgetary requirements that became prone to graft because of an inherently weak monitoring system. In fact, the pabaon (sendoff money) and the pasalubong (welcome money) exposed in Congress as having been sourced from multimillion-peso “slush funds” had occurred during this “open-door policy” period.
Reality check
The AFP remains the key defense organization mandated to address problems that strike at the core of the nation’s internal and external security. Complex issues such as the communist insurgency and Muslim secessionist movement to everyday peace-and-order concerns, such as investigation and prosecution of criminal elements—all these are within the purview of the AFP and its civilian counterpart, the PNP.
It bears noting, however, that these same issues are irrevocably intertwined with Philippine society’s history of poverty and underdevelopment, social reform and governance. And because in a democratic society, civilian authority is supreme, the AFP does its work on orders of the President, and with guidance from Congress. It is the President, the Cabinet and Congress that are at the forefront of the entire bureaucracy, with powers, funds, and policies geared to oversee and ensure the security capability of the AFP.
In its official report on the 1989 coup attempt, the Davide Commission set forth recommendations for ensuring the supremacy of civilian authority over the military. The principal prescription was the appointment of civilians to head the Department of National Defense, the National Security Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
Finally, it made recommendations over the long term that touched on the need for reforms concerning social justice, corruption, decentralization, democratic change, patriotism, constitutionalism and the building of a citizens’ army.
The final report of the Feliciano Fact-finding Commission also underscored the need to reform the AFP, based on the following findings:
The Air Force has more generals and pilots than aircraft. Its 240 combat pilots compete for around 60 operational aircraft and at any given time, there are 40 to 50 trainee pilots forced to queue for the use of three trainer aircraft.
The success ratio (rate of conviction) in respect to cases brought to the Sandiganbayan had declined to 6 percent. “This means, the Ombudsman was courageous enough to state that the high-ranking public officials and military officers charged before the Sandiganbayan have a 94-percent chance of walking away free at the end of the proceedings.”
“The AFP has a very strained and low standard medical and health-service delivery system. The services provided by the AFP hospitals have long been below standard and inadequate [to meet the] needs of the soldiers and their families.” There is one doctor per 294 military personnel, and one doctor per 1,470 dependents.
Retired Commodore Rex Robles, a member of the commission, reported that out of the Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIFs) for fiscal year 2003 of P1.2 billion, less than 8 percent (96 million) goes to the AFP, and this amount already includes the budget (less than 3 percent of the total CIF) for the Intelligence Service, AFP (Isafp). In comparison, the PNP gets almost three times as much at P270 million, while the office of the secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) gets P95 million or almost the same as the intelligence budget of the entire AFP.
The DOJ has separate intelligence budgets for the NBI (less than P25 million) and the Bureau of Immigration (P8 million). “It would be superfluous to assert that the AFP bears the brunt of conducting intelligence operations against the major internal threats to national security consisting of the communist movement, the Moro secessionists, the quasisecessionist Abu Sayyaf Group and the Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI), the regional arm of the al-Qaeda.” The JI has verifiable links with the MILF although the latter has been issuing denials of such links. Furthermore, the al-Qaeda funds provided by the JI help facilitate entry into MILF enclaves.
Corruption in the AFP through “conversion,” “rigged-bidding” and “washing,” which was exposed by the Magdalo Group, was confirmed by the commission and has recommended safeguards to prevent recurrence.
To be continued
This four-part series originally runs in The Philippines Graphic magazine, which hits newsstands Monday. The third and last parts will run in the BusinessMirror on March 14 and 21.
