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May 16, 2000, The Philippine Star, Higher 'intel' fund for AFP, PNP eyed,

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May 16, 2000, The Philippine Star, Higher 'intel' fund for AFP, PNP eyed,

The House of Representatives will consider giving the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) bigger intelligence budgets next year, Rep. Gilberto Duavit (LAMP, Rizal) said yesterday.

Duavit, who chairs the powerful House appropriations committee, said in a radio interview the military and the police need more intelligence funds to effectively fight Muslim secessionists, bandits and terrorists.

He said there were reports blaming a failure of intelligence of the AFP for the death of several soldiers at the hands of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters hiding in government-built irrigation canals and tunnels in the Maguindanao-Cotabato area.

"Their intelligence gathering is weak because they lack funds," he said in Filipino.

He said the Philippines is the only country in the world that allots the smallest intelligence budget for its military and police forces in relation to its national budget.

"For this year, our intelligence agencies have a combined outlay of about P1.5 billion. That is only a fourth of one percent of the P629-billion 2000 budget. How could we expect them to work effectively with that kind of money?" he added.

More than a third of the P1.5-billion intelligence outlay, about P620 million, is actually allotted to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission chaired by President Estrada.

The commission's chief operating unit is the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force headed concurrently by PNP chief Director General Panfilo Lacson.

Lacson's task force is believed to be the biggest recipient of information gathering money from the commission.

The remainder of the P1.5 billion, about P880 million, is spread among the AFP, PNP, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, National Security Council, Presidential Security Group and other agencies.

In Macabebe, Pampanga, Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. said that any fund for the modernization of the AFP could be automatically used to sustain the government's warfare needs in the Mindanao conflict without having to realign the budget.

At the same time, Villar also said that there may be no need to augment available funds for Mindanao, as the government is expected to include such consideration in its defense budget proposal to be submitted to Congress this July.

In an interview at the residence of Pampanga fourth district Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc, Villar said "we (in the House) have appropriated for the requirements in Mindanao." He said that funds for AFP modernization have not been fully released yet.

Earlier, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Senate defense committee, urged the realignment of funds for AFP modernization from the funds generated by the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) from the sale of military lands in Metro Manila.

Villar declined to give figures on how much is available from the BCDA, but earlier the BCDA was said to have raised some P50 billion.

"There is no need to realign. That has already been appropriated," Villar said, referring to the AFP modernization funds. "We have approved exactly as they (the executive branch) asked for in this year's budget, so nobody can claim budgetary shortages."

He admitted however that while budget appropriation "is not difficult," the question of cash availability is another issue. He said that borrowing might have to be resorted to in case of cash shortage to sustain government expenses in war-torn Mindanao.

While defense officials have declined to give figures, there have been reports that the government spends some P100 million a day in the Mindanao conflict, and that some P1 billion has already been spent since the crisis in the South started last March.

In a press briefing earlier, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is also social welfare secretary, said her department has been spending some P2 million a week for some 314,000 evacuees in central Mindanao, with only P22 million left in its calamity funds. -- With Ding Cervantes

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