{"article":{"id":191147,"heading":"AFP gets P10-billion hardware shop list","author":"Pesante-USA","created":"2007-01-06 16:17:11","modified":"2013-11-11 00:46:48","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:46:48","article":"

AFP gets P10-billion hardware shop list



By Anthony Vargas, Reporter

Manila --THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be embarking on a spending spree with President Arroyo approving on Friday a P10-billion shopping list for military hardware.

The President and concurrent defense secretary gave AFP brass the green light to bid out 14 contracts.

Mrs. Arroyo also on Friday vowed to defeat communist and secessionist rebels in Mindanao before her term of office ends in 2010.

A successful anti-insurgency campaign, she said, would “establish a secure environment conducive to national development.”

The AFP chief, Gen. Hermo­genes Esperon Jr. said the planned purchases would be used “for internal security operations.”

High on the AFP’s shopping list are utility and attack helicopters with night flying capabilities, watercraft for riverine patrols, modern communication equipments, squad automatic rifles and hi-tech bomb detection equipment.

Esperon could not hide his excitement.

“They [requests for purchase] were approved in juts one day . . . it’s a record time. Suddenly we are [now] ordering P10-billion worth of [military] equip­ments,” Esperon said.

The military, he added, expects deliveries either by April or July 2007 if the bidding process proceeds smoothly.

The AFP vice-chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Antonio Romero, who heads the military’s capability-upgrade program, said they only have P5 billion and would have to wait for the release of the remainder.

But Esperon said President Arroyo called up Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya during the pre-procurement conference, asking him to expedite release of the P5-billion balance in the purchase budget.

He said the first P5 billion would be enough for the purchase of 10 of the 14 items on the AFP’s shopping list.

The defense department’s bids and awards committee will approve contracts that would worth P50 million and above while the AFP bids and awards committee will handle the contracts below the said amount.





**************<\/p>\n","contact":"magsasakapil@hotmail.com","link":"","address":"337 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026","phone":"213-241-0906","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be embarking on a spending spree with President Arroyo approving on Friday a P10-billion shopping list for military hardware.\r\n\r\nThe President and concurrent defense secretary gave AFP brass the green light to bid out 14 contracts.\r\n\r\nMrs. Arroyo also on Friday vowed to defeat communist and secessionist rebels in Mindanao before her term of office ends in 2010.\r\n","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2007\/01\/191147.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}