DEFENSE officials are open to the establishment of a structure similar to the Pentagon building of the United States Department of Defense (US DOD).
“That’s one of the options currently being studied,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo B. Burgos Jr. said. The chief of the AFP Public Affairs Office spoke to the BusinessMirror after the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) bared development plans for several military camps.
BCDA President and Chief Executive Arnel Paciano D. Casanova said in a press briefing they plan “to undertake the master planning” soon. “We don’t have this yet but this year we plan to. Initially, we are already being asked to look at Camp Aguinaldo and the Navy area in Fort Bonifacio,” he said.
Casanova said the plan has to be formulated by officials of the AFP, BCDA and the Department of National Defense (DND). “Ultimately, AFP officials will be the decision-makers and BCDA will just support their initiatives,” Casanova added.
Burgos said AFP officials are tapping the BCDA for property development like this “because, admittedly, our expertise is on national defense.” He added that while the AFP has two realty agencies, the institution may need to outsource non-core expertise like master planning.
The master planning and development initiatives would cover the 20-hectare AFP property in Camp Aguinaldo, according to Casanova.
The 70-year-old Pentagon building has a total land area of 11.7359 hectares, or 29 acres, 34 of it includes the courtyard.
The building, completed in 1943, sits on a 583-acre (235.932-hectare) lot, according to the US DOD web site.
Casanova said “things must move faster” in view of lot areas the AFP is losing to illegal settlers.
“We have two types of illegal settlers to address: the homeless poor and the professional squatters,” he said, adding that the latter is more difficult to handle. Casanova said he estimates the AFP to be losing P1 billion annually because of these illegal settlers.
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