Party-list Anakpawis on Saturday, June 26, lambasted a proposed P118-billion ($2.43 billion) arms deal between the Philippines and the United States as ‘’immoral, callous and inappropriate.’’
"Amid the national economy in ruins, unemployment and loss of incomes hound the workers and peasants in the country throwing them into hunger and misery, we are hearing about this multi-billion peso arms deal, which is obviously irrelevant to the recovery efforts from the disastrous impact of pandemic lockdown policies," Ariel Casilao, Anakpawis Party-list national president and former lawmaker, said in a press statement.
Casilao cited a US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) statement that the Duterte government requested to purchase:
1. 10 F-16C Block 70/72 aircraft;
2. 10 F-16D Block 70/72 aircraft;
3. 15 F100-PW-229EEP engines or F110-GE-129D engines;
4. 15 Improved Programmable Display Generators (iPDG);
5. 15 AN/APG-83 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR);
6. 15 Modular Mission Computers 7000AH;
7. 15 LN-260 Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) with SAASM and PPS;
8. 24 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) AIM-120C-7/C-8 or equivalent;
9. One AIM-120 Guidance Section; 48 LAU-129 missile launchers;
10. Three KMU-572 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (LJDAM) tail kits;
11. Six Mk-82 500lb bombs; six (6) Mk-82 500lb Inert training bombs;
12. Six FMU-152 or FMU-139 fuzes;
13. Six Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) or Litening ATP;
14. 15 Multifunctional Information Display System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS-JTRS) aircraft terminals;
15. 15 M61A1 Vulcan Anti-Aircraft 20mm guns, and;
16. Assorted weapon instruments and systems, and ammunition.
The DSCA, last June 24, said the US State Department has approved the possible foreign military sale to the Philippines.
“The workers are demanding P10,000 social amelioration and peasants are calling for a P15,000 production subsidy, but Duterte is pursuing to buy these ‘weapons of mass destruction’ with taxpayers’ money. Instead of improving the lives of poor sectors in the country, he intends to waste public resources with this . This deal exposes Duterte to prefer delivering death than aid to productive sectors that will pump-prime the national economy and salvage our society,” Casilao said.
He stressed that peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas’ (KMP) demand of P15,000 production subsidy to 9.7 million farmers, fisherfolk and rural-based families, would reach a total P145.5 billion.
Thus, the supposed deal would already fund more than 80 percent of the required funds.
Moreover, the useless National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was budgeted with P19 billion this year, and it is proposing a P22 billion budget for next year. Adding all these fascist-related budgets would reach P159 billion.
‘’This demolishes that usual excuse of the Duterte government that it lacks funding for significant programs such as aid to productive sectors in the country,’’ Casilao added.
He also warned that this deal does not equate to the protection of national sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea, as the present inventory of the armed forces already involved weapons that were supposedly used against foreign incursions.
The armed forces had missiles capable of being launched from aircraft and naval ships, but remained useless amid Duterte’s surrender policy to China.
“We renew the call of poor sectors of ‘Ayuda, Hindi Bala! Ayuda, Hindi Bomba!’ and we urge the people to oppose the throwing away of precious public resources to these unproductive programs, and press the government to aid the ailing marginalized sectors, who are actually the productive sectors in the economy and society,” Casilao maintained.