Arroyo vows to fund anti-rebel campaign
Reuters | 12/22/2008 7:37 PM
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President Arroyo vowed on Monday to provide the necessary funds to train and equip soldiers to end a 40-year-old Maoist-led insurgency before she steps down from power in 2010.
"We will make Philippine defense reform work to stop the insurgency by 2010," Arroyo, also the commander-in-chief of the 120,000-member Armed Forces, told soldiers at an annual anniversary parade at the main Army base in Manila.
"The upgrading of our defense capabilities includes new helicopters, squad automatic weapons, inflatable boats, and other facilities and equipment. Upgrading will continue, particularly in training."
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the military will get an extra P5 billion ($106.6 million) or an 18 percent rise in its 2009 budget to recruit nearly 1,000 soldiers, purchase more munitions and stock up on fuel.
Another P5 billion was allocated to acquire modern and new equipment, such as helicopters, boats and new rifles, he said, adding the Army had spent an extra P1.8 billion this year in its fight against Muslim rebels.
Arroyo also announced a package of benefits to soldiers and their families, thanking them for carrying out their mission to defeat communist and Muslim rebels and assist hundreds of thousands of people displaced by disasters and conflict.
Military chief General Alexander Yano said the soldiers had done their job well, weakening the capability of Muslim rebels to burn homes and farms in the south and reducing from 87 to 63 the number of communist rebel bases by the third quarter of 2008.
Yano said the military has also defeated an "enemy within" after anti-government forces failed to entice soldiers to "interfere in the realm of pure politics".
"I am proud to say that this enemy within the Armed Forces of the Philippines has already been slain," Yano said after the parade in Manila. Armored vehicles and troops paraded at the Camp Aguinaldo headquarters of the military while training aircraft and combat helicopters flew overhead.
During her speech, the president said her government remained committed to end the Muslim secessionist conflict in the country through peaceful negotiations, promising to restart peace talks as soon as the safety of communities in the south was assured.
"The peace process must proceed and we are assembling the pieces to get the peace process started again," Arroyo said in her speech.
