“War is hell!” Although historians generally attribute this statement on armed conflict to Gen. William T. Sherman of the American Civil War Union Army, the civil war general could not remember ever having said these immortal words. Before his death in 1891, Sherman reportedly made an extensive search through all of his private papers in a fruitless effort to convince himself that the words were actually his.
Leaving historians to settle the issue, one thing is clear: War has become a profitable business, and modern weapons have become one of the most lucrative products ever invented. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the top 100 weapons manufacturers in the world (excluding China) sold a combined $420 billion in 2018,proving that war can indeed be profitable for companies in the industry. SIPRI said 80 of the 100 top arms producers in 2018 were based in the US, Europe and Russia. Of the remaining 20, six were based in Japan, three in Israel, India and South Korea, respectively, two in Turkey and one each in Australia, Canada and Singapore.
If plans don’t misfire, the Philippines may soon become a weapons manufacturing base, joining the global club of arms producers. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) recently disclosed plans to transform several economic zones into defense-industrial complexes that will allow the country to produce military equipment and weapons on its own (See, “Peza eyes defense industrial complexes,” in the BusinessMirror, February 18, 2020).
Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said the agency can help speed up the country’s industrialization process with the creation of new economic zones. These new economic zones would include military-industrial complex that could be potentially established in the military’s reservation areas. She said the defense-industrial complex will allow the country to manufacture its own military and defense equipment, as well as weaponry. Once established, our own defense-industrial complex can be used by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to start inviting manufacturers that can help modernize the AFP.
“Creating a defense-industrial ecozone will not just modernize the country and the defense forces, but will also create jobs and put to use the long idle military reservation areas. Because of our strategic location, we can also make the Philippines the manufacturing hub of defense and other industries in the region,” Plaza said.
To accomplish such a plan, Plaza said it is necessary for the Peza and the AFP to sign a memorandum of agreement to clear the regulatory powers of the two agencies for the proposed creation of a defense-industrial complex. The agreement will make sure the Peza and the AFP understand the implications of putting up a defense-economic zone to national security, military posture and strategies once defense manufacturers start coming in.
The US is still the world’s biggest arms manufacturer. But after President Duterte terminated the two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, Philippine access to US arms, training and expertise will be limited if not totally stopped. However, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia has overtaken the UK at the No. 2 spot among defense manufacturers. SIPRI’s latest report said Russian companies now rank just behind US manufacturers in the sale of weapons system around the world.
Partnering
with Russian arms manufacturers can be an option in line with Peza’s vision of
making the Philippines a weapons manufacturing base in the region. However,
policy-makers must first grapple with how to manage the opportunities and
challenges this move will entail. As we said earlier, the arms trade is big
business; but it is also a source of corruption. For instance, US dominance of
the global arms market is not something in which the American people should be
proud about. The US routinely sells weapons to undemocratic regimes and gross
human-rights abusers. It also supplies arms to many
countries it has identified as harboring terrorists.