Philippines still in market for best arms deal
Philippines still in market for best arms deal
MANILA (AFP): The race to re-arm the Philippines, locked in a David and Goliath tiff with China in the Spratlys, remains wide open and Manila will consider even Chinese hardware if the price is right, Defense Secretary Renato de Villa said.
He told AFP the military's shopping list includes fighter- interceptors, patrol craft and weapons systems to support them and would be submitted to congress after the May 8 elections.
Congress last month passed an act allowing the military to spend up to 50 billion pesos (US$2 billion) within five years to upgrade one of Asia's most ill-equipped armies, but the legislators reserved the right to vet the modernization program.
The long-delayed program took on added urgency last month with Manila's discovery that the Chinese navy had occupied and built observation posts on the Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef, part of the Spratlys chain in the South China Sea which is wholly or partially claimed by six countries.
"We are not going to buy on a cash, up-front basis. We will always have to look for terms and arrangements that are advantageous to us," de Villa said.
He said Manila has been offered the Russian MiG-29, Israel's Kfir, US-made F-16 and the Mirage F1 from France for its fighter requirements, and that Australian, American, French, Spanish and Chinese firms have offered patrol craft.
But he emphasized that "we are not on the verge of signing any deal with anybody," and that the government may only enter into negotiations with dealers after congress approves the list.
De Villa said "we are not excluding China," and that in principle, "if the terms and the price and the arrangements are to our advantage we will" buy from Beijing.
China's North Industries Corp. displayed anti-tank weapons and small arms at a defense exhibit here last week, while the Moscow Aircraft Production Organization (MAPO) took an awed Filipino air force pilot for a ride in one of its two MiG-29 Fulcrums on display.
Dispute
De Villa, who refused to discuss the Mischief Reef dispute, described the planned acquisitions as "a modest upgrade" to be pursued over 15 years and which may "go beyond" if the economy took off.
Manila now has 11 aging, US-made F-5 fighters including two with combat capability, and 33 patrol boats.
"Our program is designed purely for self-defense and our program does not even envision the development of a blue-water navy," he said, adding that the new patrol craft would enable the Navy "to defend our territorial waters."
Manila claims 53 islands and atolls in the Spratlys, saying these fall within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The archipelago is claimed in whole by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
De Villa said that China, which has announced a 14 percent increase in defense spending, now has "the capability to project" its forces forward beyond its territory, but that it was too early to say "what will be the emphasis in their military spending in the years to come."