Teodoro: AFP needs more troops, funds
SAN JOSE, ANTIQUE—The Armed Forces needs at least 6,000 more troops and an additional P2 billion to effectively confront the country's security concerns, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said yesterday.
Teodoro said the priority should be recruiting more soldiers and increasing the military's operational funds instead of acquiring modern and high tech weaponry.
Speaking at a press conference during the annual Binirayan Festival here, Teodoro said an additional 12 infantry battalions (around 500 soldiers per battalion) would address the need to saturate areas where there is an ongoing conflict between government troops and rebel or armed groups.
But he said this number could change and need to be validated because of the changing situation and security threats.
Teodoro said increasing the number of soldiers would enable the Armed Forces to not only provide a deterrent against security threats but to conduct continuous re-training while fighting the various armed groups.
The troops will also be stationed in areas cleared of rebels to ensure that armed groups will not resurge in these areas.
Teodoro said one main reason for the continued existence and abduction of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group is the shift of focus of military operations because of the lack of troops.
He also said the priority should be not on high-tech equipment like multi-role fighter planes but on acquiring equipment for the infantry including troop carriers, logistic vehicles and combat and civil engineering equipment.
He pointed out that the country's Armed Forces is fighting three armed groups at the same time: the Abu Sayyaf, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the communist-led New People's Army. But its main task is to respond to rescue and rehabilitation operations during disasters.
“I don't know of any country where its armed forces has been able to operate the way the Armed Forces (of the Philippines) does with its limited resources,” Teodoro said.
But Teodoro said there is a need to upgrade the equipment of the Navy because of the country's very huge coastline and to guard against human smuggling, drugs and environmental degradation.
The defense chief allayed concerns over the rising military strength of China as shown in a recent international show of the Chinese Navy where it displayed for the first time its nuclear-powered submarines.
He said the growing Chinese military power does not a pose threat to the Philippines or countries in the region but more a concern to other regions.