Mindanao lawmaker lambasts AFP for buying AMERICAN junk

Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate strongly criticized the defense department and the armed forces for acquiring "very expensive junk military equipment" from the US as part of the country’s external defense. “We are now becoming laughing stock of other countries. We bought two very expensive 46-year old decommissioned cutters that defense experts say can be destroyed even by a single torpedo fired by a Chinese warship. It seems that the AFP is not modernizing at all, but, it's engaged in collecting expensive American junk,” said Zarate. Zarate is referring to the country’s recent acquisition of BRP Ramon Alcaraz, a $15.6 million worth Hamilton-class cutter decommissioned by the US Coast Guard and bought by the Department of National Defense (DND) as part of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The AFP admitted during Thursday's budget deliberation of the proposed defense department's 2014 budget that the purchased price was taken from the now controversial Malampaya Fund, an off-budget special account under the sole discretion of the Office of the President. In the same budget hearing, the AFP justified its expensive acquisition as an “immediate short-term solution” for the country’s external defense, particularly with the current volatile situation in the West Philippine Sea that is also being claimed by other countries, including China and Vietnam. As part of its extended modernization program, the AFP acquired for $9 Million from the US its first Hamilton Class cutter in 2012.