The Department of National Defense (DND) has admitted it would be hard pressed to maintain and upgrade the two newly-acquired Hamilton-class cutters should the Supreme Court's (SC) decision of freezing further releases from the Malampaya Fund drag on.
“It will have an effect to our modernization because we get funds (from Malampaya) for modernization, like the support to the two cutters,” DND Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.
The two ships, the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar (PF-15) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16), were acquired as part of the country's efforts to secure the Malampaya oil-gas separation rig from possible threats.
The two frigates are slated for various upgrades to increase their capabilities to protect the country's vast territorial waters.
Gazmin expressed hope the SC's order would be lifted soon once the High Court would realize the value of the Malampaya Fund in the country's military upgrade and enhancement.
He added that the DND was looking at alternate sources of funding like the sales of properties being implemented by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and the earlier P75 billion allocated for the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) earlier said the Malampaya Fund and the President's Social Fund are "special funds, the disposition of which have been constitutionally delegated to the President."
These funds were ordered frozen by the SC in wake of the P10-billion pork barrel fund scandal.
The OSG also warned that "a hasty constitutional interpretation may create signposts which could limit the scope of the policy responses by the Executive and the Congress in crafting reforms meant to address the reported abuses of the (priority development assistance fund) PDAF. We therefore urge the Honorable Court to allow the reform-oriented political process to proceed," it added.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=573301
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