TWO local arms manufacturers claim to have gained big purchases from the country’s military establishment, following the siege in Marawi City last May by militants identified with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and persistent threats of terror attacks of extremists and the communist rebels.
The two are Armscor Global Defense Manufacturer of Firearms and the United Defense Manufacturing Corp., the latter a firearms manufacturer based in Parañaque and provides the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces and the Philippine Coast Guard with firearms and other technical equipment.
Manufacturing sources say since the beginning of the Marawi siege on May 23, government troops have received no less than 3,845 locally manufactured firearms to meet the demand.
The biggest purchase since the Marawi crisis began has been from Armscor, the dominant local gun manufacturer, which delivered 3,000 brand-new caliber .45 pistols to the Armed Forces on July 18.
“The value of the acquisition was placed at “around P60 million” by Armscor Senior Executive VP and deputy CEO Gina Angangco said, adding the model purchased by the AFP was the company’s 1911-A2 TAC Ultra, a highly modernized version of the aging Colt 1911-A1, which are still issued to soldiers despite serious wear and tear.
These Armscor pistols represent the first modern replacements to the US-made Colt pistols, many of which were acquired by the AFP more than 50 years ago.
The same gun normally carries a P40,000 price tag each but was sold at half the price in hopes of expanding the relationship with the AFP, Angangco added in an interview.
Armscor was reported to have laid off some 450 contractual employees and put permanent staff on a three-day work week in 2014, following an abrupt drop in local demand for firearms.
This supposedly followed the implementation of the Comprehensive Firearms & Ammunitions Act of 2013 (RA 10591) that made the purchase of new guns a laborious and red tape-laden process.
“This is the first time in my long career at Armscor that the military has made a purchase like this,” Angangco said.
This represents a sharp turn-around in the Philippine government’s procurement policy since its two major firearms purchases in the 21st century so far have been for 56,843 units of Remington M-4-type rifles for the AFP and 76,000 units of Glock 17 pistols for the PNP. Both firearm types are foreign made.
At the same time, UMDC also delivered 345 M-4 type assault rifles to government security forces within the last month.
UDMC president & CEO Gene Carino said 200 were bought by the Philippine Air Force-Special Operations Wing while 145 went to the Presidential Security Group.
He added his company last month also won the bidding to supply the PNP Special Action Force with 233 rifles of the same type.
Carino declined to disclose the price tag on these separate contracts but said UDMC normally sold this type for around P100,000 per unit, stressing his company won the biddings “fair and square” because of a substantial discount.
Carino said his 10-year old gun company had survived on private purchases by sportsmen, gun enthusiasts, as well as some AFP and PNP officers in their personal capacity.
The sale of military-styled rifles to non-government buyers was permitted until it was put on indefinite hold by an Executive Order issued following renewed clashes with Muslim and communist rebels.
Meanwhile, the state-operated Government Arsenal has released 500 refurbished rifles to the armed forces since the fighting in Marawi broke out with around 1,000 more being hurried through the production line.
GA director retired Maj. Gen. Jonathan Martir said their Bataan production facility had been working double time to fill the sudden increase in demand for both rifles and ammunition.