With the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) poised to sign a lasting peace agreement, Armed Forces chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Tuesday stressed there is still need to modernize the military in order for it to effectively defend the country's territories.
Bautista noted a well-equipped Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) can also help the government in addressing the effects of climate change and natural and man-made calamities.
"We have not invested much in our Armed Forces for a long time (as) we have been so focused on addressing internal security issues and that has diverted us from our primary mandate of defending the territory. Our principal mandate is to protect the people and the state," he said.
And with the MILF now on its way to join the mainstream Philippine society, the AFP chief said the military can now focus on other threats.
"(We can) now focus on the other threats that we face as I mentioned, defending our territory and climate change and also the other threat groups internally like the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army), in the internal security area. We hope they would abandon the armed struggle and also follow the path of peace as the MILF did," Bautista pointed out.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=617342
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