An opposition lawmaker on Friday slammed President Duterte’s order to acquire 15 Black Hawk helicopters which, she said, “will cost the Filipino people billions amid the pandemic and worst economic crisis.”
Assistant Leader and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas said “Buying pricey Black Hawk helicopters to supposedly augment the military’s air power when Filipinos continue to reel from the economic recession and pandemic is sky-high insensitivity.”
Brosas said each Black Hawk helicopter (Sikorsky UH-60} costs at least P283 million, making the total chopper shopping price tag equal to at least P4.245 billion.
“P4.245 billion could be enough to ensure the vaccination of at least 1.169 million Filipinos pegged at the costly price of Sinovac, the preferred vaccine of the Duterte administration,” she said.
This amount, she added, was also higher than the P2.5 billion fixed funding for COVID-19 vaccines under the 2021 General Appropriations Act.
“The billions of pesos to be used to acquire 15 Black Hawk helicopters will also be enough to provide P10,000 subsidy to some 424,000 victims of crisis, pandemic and calamities,” she said.
Last year, the Philippine Air Force received six of the 16 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters from the Polish company Polskie Zaklady Lotnicze Sp.z.o.o for a total contract price of US$241 million or around P11.57 billion.
Brosas said under the 2021 national budget, the AFP was endowed with a P33-billion funding for its Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program, aside from the P5 billion in unprogrammed funds for the same purpose.