As the US State Department approved the arms deal with the Duterte government worth $2.43 billion or P118 billion, the Anakpawis Party-list expressed its opposition and slammed it as “immoral, inappropriate and callous” to the immediate needs of poor sectors.
Anakpawis Party-list National President and former lawmaker Ariel Casilao said in a press statement Sunday: “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.”
According to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the Duterte government requested to buy:
1. 10 F-16C Block 70/72 aircraft;
2. two 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; forty-eight (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 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,” Casilao said.
“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.”