MANILA - Amid the bombings in Mindanao allegedly perpetrated by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf, the military is as helpless as sitting ducks.

This is because the military’s ammunition stock has been at a critical level for some time now, as confirmed by a ranking Army official in court.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro’s recently directed the military to crush the Abu Sayyaf following the release this week of Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni. The extremist group held Vagni hostage for nearly 6 months.

Efforts to free Vagni resulted in at least 11 Marines being killed and dozens injured in encounters with the Abu Sayyaf.

But, in truth, the military lack the firepower to strike back, whether against the MILF or the bandit group. It has been plagued by lack of ammunition since last year.

'Critical' ammo level

In an answer submitted to a Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) last June 25, Army Vice-Commander General Jerry Jalandoni told the court that the military’s stock has reached the “critical” level.

Jalandoni’s reply was in connection with the court case filed by Talon Security Consulting and Trade against the Department of National Defense (DND) for putting on hold an almost a billion-peso procurement contract that the supplier supposedly won in a bidding.

Based on logistics doctrine, Jalandoni explained that a soldier must be issued at least 3 loads of ammunition: “One in his personal possession, another in the company supply and the last in the battalion supply; not to mention the strategic reserve in the ammunition depot.”

But Jalandoni said reports he had obtained showed that “our stock has reached below the one basic load and therefore could be regarded as critical.”

In fact, the stock situation has been critical since last year when he was still the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics or J4, Jalandoni told the court.

Jalandoni said the procurement of ammunition, particularly the 40 mm High-Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP), the 60 mm and 81 mm, has been sought as late as April last year following the growing hostilities in Mindanao and the “slowly depleting stocks of these types in the AFP inventory.”

Moreover, “at the rate of consumption of our combat troops in Mindanao, we find our soldiers needing the said ammunition,” Jalandoni said.

It's the conflict, not ammo

The court admission lends credence to reports that soldiers are vulnerable to enemy fires. But Teodoro dismissed the suggestion as unfair.

“It is unfair to say that our soldiers are dying because they have no ammunition or the enemy is better equipped. Our soldiers die because of the conflict. And this will only stop if the conflict is ended,” Teodoro had said in earlier reports.
 
Jalandoni was a provisional member of the DND Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) that conducted the bidding for the 40 mm, 60 mm and 81 mm ammunition.

The procurement, however, has been in limbo after Teodoro ordered the scrapping of the bid process after the BAC supposedly committed a flaw in the process.

The winning supplier, Talon, allegedly submitted false documents in its bid.

In his reply to the RTC, Jalandoni said the BAC, chaired by DND Assistant Secretary Roberto Feliciano, had found Talon as the “lowest calculated bidder” and decided to award the contract.

Failed bidding

But just when the contract was about to be awarded, DND Undersecretary for Finance and Armed Forces Modernization Affairs Antonio Romero questioned the process, saying he had received reports of irregularity.

Jalandoni told the RTC that Romero may have become “biased” after talking to the losing bidder.

“Instead of advising the losing bidder to file a protest, (Romero) talked to the BAC and meddled with the affairs of the BAC and even went out of his way to recommend to (Teodoro) a failure of bidding, which I believe is in violation of the procurement procedure,” Jalandoni said.

Asked how the delay in the procurement is affecting the performance of the soldiers, especially those assigned in conflict areas, Jalandoni said the situation does not bode well for the military.

“This would slowly deplete our ammunition stock, directly reducing the capability of our troops in the field to fight, and endangering the life and safety of our soldiers, ultimately making them incapable of accomplishing their mission,” Jalandoni said.