AFP needs P3 billion to implement soldiers’ housing program

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) needs some P3 billion to fully implement its housing program for military officers and enlisted personnel.

Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the AFP cannot provide a house for every officer or enlisted personnel because of lack of funds.

"Not everyone is entitled to the housing program because we have very limited housing facilities," he said.

"We don’t have the money to build houses (for the officers and enlisted personnel). Because of this shortage, we need P3 billion."

Speaking on the television program "Talkback" on ANC cable television Monday night, Ermita said records show that a total of 6,149 housing applications are pending with the AFP.

"The President is very much aware of the need to take good care of the welfare of the military men and their condition," he said.

"The pay of soldiers and officers need to be upgraded and there is inadequacy in housing that must be attended to," he said.

Ermita said the problem of "toleration" in the AFP leadership has resulted in the "lenient implementation" of rules and regulations in the use of military housing.

"What happens is that quite often the rules and regulations crafted by commanders and carried on throughout the years have not been implemented very meticulously," he said.

Ermita said retired military officers or enlisted personnel are able to remain in military quarters through "pakikiusap" with their commanders.

"Sometimes because of the very fast turnover of leadership at the top, the commitment about leaving certain quarters is not done," he said.

"And this goes on until such time that you get a commander who is meticulous enough to take a close look at it before a regulation is implemented. It is not being able to follow the system effectively but the style of the leadership."

"Several hectares" at Camp Rigeo de Dios in Tanza, Cavite have been converted for use as a housing project for soldiers, he added.

On the other hand, Defense Undersecretary Constancia de Guzman said "radical reforms" are needed to ensure that the military’s "scarce resources" can be managed efficiently.

Last August, President Arroyo named De Guzman in charge of a task force to look into the AFP procurement system.

The task force is one of two created by Mrs. Arroyo to implement reforms within the AFP.

De Guzman said one "radical reform" introduced by her task force was to "compress" the bids and awards committees, making them a "single group" to determine the winning bidder.

"The problem (in the procurement system) is that the process is tedious," she said.

"Prior to the creation of the task force, we found out that there were 119 bids and awards committees in the AFP alone.

"Now just have one single group at the AFP headquarters which will decide who among the prospective bidders would be awarded the contract.

"This rule is provided for in the provision of Republic Act 9184, which is the Government Procurement Act."

Problems lie in delays in the release of funds by the budget department and the late receipt by key AFP budgetary units, or those given the authority to disburse the money, she added.

Prof. Carolina Hernandez, a member of the Feliciano commission which probed the failed July 27 military mutiny, said the AFP’s procurement system is also saddled with "unnecessary items" in the budget.

"There are items in the budget that are not needed by soldiers on the ground such as office supplies," she said. "They need to use the budget allocation to buy things actually needed, especially in the battlefield."

Hernandez said "conversion" takes place when part of the money allocated to a certain military unit for non-essential purposes is converted into cash.

"What we saw in our findings is that 30 percent of the original allocation gets lost and they call this cost of money," she said.

Corruption, low standard of living and bad administration of the AFP triggered the uprising of junior military officers, according to the Feliciano commission report issued in October.

Ermita was named defense secretary last August.

Mrs. Arroyo has vowed to transform the AFP into the "cutting edge of internal reform" in the government, which aims to carry out reforms to improve the AFP’s capability to respond to security threats.

Headed by retired Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, the reform group is part of the recommendations of the Joint Defense Agreement (JDA) forged recently by the Philippines and United States governments.

The JDA resulted from Mrs. Arroyo’s state visit to Washington in May, where US President George W. Bush promised to review the security needs of the Philippines as a basis for US military assistance in support of the US-led global war on terrorism.

The reform group is accountable to the AFP chief of staff and supported by a "pool of experts on the technical, financial and legal aspects."

It will evaluate the qualifications of the prospective bidders.