MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto cautioned the Duterte administration yesterday against its reported plan to take the $500-million loan being offered by the Chinese government to modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
As this developed, the Philippine National Police said the government of China will be donating 23,000 M4 rifles to the agency to boost its operational capabilities in the countryside.
For her part, detained Sen. Leila de Lima sought an inquiry into the $167-billion infrastructure project of the Duterte administration that would be financed through foreign loans, mostly coming from the Chinese government.
“We must stop relying on foreign suppliers to modernize the… equipment of our armed forces,” Recto said, after hearing Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statement that the country plans to avail itself of the loan to procure defense equipment from China.
“There is no need to borrow from China. We should tap our domestic industries for the equipment needed by our policemen and soldiers,” he said.
Recto cited the existence of a vibrant local firearms industry, which has been exporting its products for decades.
“Some of them (are) licensees of (the) world’s leading gun makers,” he pointed out.
Recto said the country even has its own boat builders and vehicle makers that can step up to the plate once there are firm orders from government.
He said the government should look inward and develop the country’s own military capability.
“It is cheaper to produce and maintain military hardware locally than to import them. That way, jobs are created for Filipinos and local industries are given the chance to grow,” the senator said.
The only equipment or parts we should import, Recto said, are those that could not be produced locally.
“We should not bypass local industries which can provide parts or whole of the defense equipment being sought,” Recto said.
“If some of the things can be made locally and the products are of the same price and quality as the ones bought abroad, then let us manufacture them here,” Recto said.
He said the country’s car manufacturing industry can supply military and police vehicles and that President Duterte’s home province of Cebu can even build coastal patrol ships.
“We have a world-class shipbuilding industry in Cebu, but our government agencies have yet to harness its potential as a major source of military and civilian boats,” he said.
“Buy local, create jobs. This should be the new mantra of the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said yesterday he was informed about the donation of rifles during Duterte’s visit to China last May 14-15 for the Belt and Road Forum where he was part of the delegation.
“So we will not buy anymore. China will be giving us and we will accept that because it is free,” Dela Rosa said in an ambush interview. – With Emmanuel Tupas