April 7, 2008, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Why AFP's intelligence units fail to deliver, by Jun Bauzon Odono,

April 7, 2008, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Why AFP's intelligence units fail to deliver, by Jun Bauzon Odono, 

MANILA, Philippines - The deaths of civilians and a soldier ("8 civilians killed in Jolo clash," Inquirer, 2/6/08), be they the result of a legitimate gun battle or not, can only be attributed to the Armed Forces of the Philippines' failure of intelligence. Yet, all echelons of the AFP have their own intelligence units. They fail to deliver for the following reasons:

1. Funding. It is not the lack of it. It is the brazen misuse of "intelligence" funds for activities not related to intelligence gathering. How many safehouses and trusted agents are being maintained? How much is being spent on these? What percent of the total cost is directly proportional to a mission's success?

2. Counter-intelligence. The AFP is actually better at spying on its own people than in gathering information about the enemy. Compare the derogatory reports that the intelligence service is churning out as against the whereabouts of its enemies in its order of battle. More often than not, the list has "TNU"-true name unknown. Sad to say, intelligence units even fabricate reports of enemy sightings just to be able to come up with a report. What adds insult to injury are reports of enemy sightings in a certain area when, in fact, the activities are legitimate movements of friendly forces. 

3. Coordination. The lack of it. Intelligence units of the AFP and the Philippine National Police are likely to identify different enemy personalities in the same area. More often than not, both will be wrong. Ask a resident who is willing to spill out information and that person will be able to identify the names, number and activities of the enemy without batting an eyelash.

4. Regionalization. Assign an Ilocano intelligence operative to Mindanao, or a Waray to Northern Luzon, and justify his output.

5. Politics. The AFP intelligence service has been dragged into the dirty world of politics. That's why you have wiretapping and other illegal activities in which intelligence operatives are involved. Given the number of redundant intelligence units and the amount of money being spent to maintain all of these, the AFP will definitely defeat the communist insurgency by 2010.