Government still mulls Lockheed deal

The government is still considering a deal with American defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters yesterday the proposed deal with Lockheed involves the setting up of a regional aircraft repair-maintenance facility at the former US air force base at Clark Field in Pampanga.

"So Lockheed Martin will put up this regional aircraft facility that will service the maintenance requirements not only of the PAF (Philippine Air Force) but of the aircraft of other countries in the region," he said.

Reyes said Lockheed will invest $15 million in the project, which will generate as many as 1,000 new jobs for aircraft technicians and other workers.

"So the package will have to be looked at a total basis," he said. "We’re not simply purchasing aircraft. We’re hoping that this will be approved sooner than later because we really need those aircraft."

Reyes said he and Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Defensor will hold a press conference to fully explain the proposed deal with Lockheed.

Money for the Lockheed deal will not be paid out of this year’s budget for the Armed Forces modernization program, he added.

However, Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters yesterday the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has to still to review the proposed contract, which was exposed by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in a two-part report last weekend.

"The NEDA will have to approve it and as far I’m concerned the NEDA is studying it, and the NEDA in its schedule in the next several weeks has not even put it on the agenda," he said.

"But we cannot rush these studies because foul-ups may occur. There is urgency in it, of course, because of allegations against it,"

Meanwhile, Wilson Fortaleza, president of the militant group Sanlakas, said yesterday the modernization program would become futile if President Arroyo does not implement a cleansing process in the Armed Forces.

Fortaleza said crooked military officers would go as far as procuring substandard military equipment to the detriment of the ordinary soldier.

Fortaleza said a syndicate within the Armed Forces would continue to cash in on every allocation for the upgrading of the military like the P10 billion Mrs. Arroyo earmarked last Monday.

Backed up by vested interests in the armaments industry, these corrupt military officers would only be deterred by strong public opinion, he added. – Marichu Villanueva, Sandy Araneta