The Senate Defense and Security Committee was prodded on Monday to open an inquiry into the multibillion-peso allocations for the acquisition of military hardware under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Law as soon as Congress reconvenes regular sessions next month.
“An inventory of procured military hardware by the Senate Defense Committee is in order,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson said in his twitter account, referring to the legislative panel chaired by his fellow Philippine Military Academy alumni, Sen. Gregorio Honasan.
Among others, Lacson signaled he was keen for the Senate, exercising oversight powers, to do an inventory of the AFP acquisitions under its multiyear modernization program, given the fresh challenge to upgrade the country’s defenses.
The senator made the call citing fund releases made for military hardware, the most recent being President Duterte’s approval of P300 billion for the “Horizon 2 shopping list” for 2018-2022.
Lacson’s tweet, likewise, listed AFP allocations from 1995 up to the Duterte administration that he suggested to be covered by the Senate inventory.
These, the senator twitted, included P50 billion allocated in 1995 under Republic Act 7898, also known as the AFP Modernization Act; P75 billion allocated in 2013-2017 for Horizon 1 under RA 10349 (Revised AFP Modernization Act); and the Duterte-approved P300-billion Horizon 2 shopping list for 2018-2022, the details of which are expected to be submitted to lawmakers in the upcoming Senate defense committee inquiry when Congress resumes regular sessions starting May 20.
Lawmakers, however, acknowledged the need to further upgrade AFP’s defense capability amid incidents of intrusions into the country’s territory, including the West Philippine Sea border.