Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Luigi Villafuerte expressed hope that Congress would heed the call of Filipinos and pass the twin measures aimed at boosting the military’s defense capabilities in the face of increasing national security threats.

Villafuerte was referring to House Bill (HB) Nos. 1362 and 1363, which he described as complementary measures beneficial to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

“Fresh congressional initiatives on the long-term defense buildup of our Armed Forces and Coast Guard are needed in full support of the commitment of our President and commander-in-chief on the long-term AFP modernization program," he said.

The deputy majority leader reckoned that this would allow the government to respond to rising national security threats, including Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

The bills espouse the allocation of a combined P15 billion for the rehabilitation of the Philippines' old yet still operational aircraft, and the acquisition plus subsequent manufacture of UAS (unmanned aerial systems) or drones.

Villafuerte said that a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that 45 percent of Filipinos support the modernization of the AFP and PCG as a priority task to protect our country’s maritime borders.

Conducted from June 20 to 29 on 1,200 respondents, the SWS survey showed that the government's modernization efforts has the backing of 47 percent of respondents in Luzon, 46 percent in Metro Manila, 44 percent in the Visayas, and 39 percent in Mindanao.

Also, 64 percent of respondents of a separate Pulse Asia poll also support the modernization of the military to protect Philippine territory.

“It is our hope that our Commander-in-chief would also consider supporting these two pending bills on recommissioning old yet operational helicopters plus other aircraft, and acquiring, and later on building our own, drones for surveillance, reconnaissance, combat and disaster-response, among others,” Villafuerte said.

He is crossing his fingers that the sequential bills would be given priority action by his solon-colleagues in the ongoing second regular ression of the 20th Congress.

HB No. 1362 proposes the establishment of the Philippine Unmanned Aerial System Program (PUASP) and Strategic Defense Technology Transfer Program (SDTTP) for “the acquisition of surveillance, reconnaissance, combat, disaster-response and medical evacuation (medevac) drones, and the establishment of an R&D (research and development) program to enable the Philippines to build its own UAS ecosystem in the long run.”

Villafuerte said that HB No. 1362 sets aside an initial P10 billion for acquiring and, later on, building our own drones not only for fighting terrorism, insurgency and other crimes, but also for disaster response, environmental protection, and border patrol and search-and-rescue missions.

On the other hand HB No. 1363 proposes the creation by the Department of National Defense (DND) of a Military Air Asset Rehabilitation Program (MAARP) to conduct technical inspection and feasibility analysis of old helicopters and other available military aircraft for possible recommissioning.

The DND is tasked under this proposal to conduct, with the AFP, a full inventory of all decommissioned aircraft in military storage nationwide, he said.

Also, HB No. 1363 allocates an initial amount of P5 billion for the recommissioning program. It will be sourced from the unprogrammed funds of the national budget or other available funding sources.