President Aquino presides over ceremonial turnover of M4 rifles, the procurement of which was marred by the discovery of units with sight and barrel defects. Photograph from Malacañang Photo Bureau.
Military personnel in the Visayas and Mindanao have started receiving their so-called brand new but refurbished M4 rifles after the United States-based supplier – Remington Outdoor Company – fixed units with sight and barrel defects.
President Benigno Aquino even presided over the ceremonial distribution of the rifles, only for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Technical Inspection and Acceptance Committee (TIAC) to discover that the rifles' sight mechanisms and barrel grooves were defective.
Remington had won the bidding in October 2013 to supply the AFP with 50,629 brand new M4 rifles worth some P2.1 billion.
Of the total number of rifles, 6,443 are destined for the Marine corps.
The government had appropriated a total of P3.3 billion to buy new rifles, and the AFP indicated earlier that it had saved P1.2 billion and will use the savings to buy additional rifles.
The firearms procurement is part of the Joint Philippine Army–Philippine Marine Corps Assault Rifle Acquisition Project.
The rifles are intended to replace early models of M-16 and M-16A1 rifles, the majority of which were as old as the Vietnam War era and are already in poor condition.
According to the Phil. Army spokesman, Col. Benjamin Hao, the AFP has already taken delivery of 24,300 rifles, which are currently being distributed to the troops in Mindanao.
He added that a total of 19,866 rifles are "still undergoing ballistic tests by the Philippine National Police".
"[The] M4 rifles {are) part of the 44,186 rifles that are now on hand in Army arsenal," Hao said. "For this year, also, the Army expects the delivery of more armored personnel carriers, protective gear for individual soldiers, and radio communication equipment."
According to Phil. Army Logistics Officer Col. Pio Diñoso, "Priority recipients are the troops assigned in Mindanao. However, due to our favorable logistics distribution schedule, especially with the availability of our C-130s cargo aircraft, the troops in the Visayas and Cotabato received their rifles in advance."
Meanwhile, just recently, the Army received and successfully tested the initial six of the 28 M11A32 Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) that the US Army donated through grant. Elbit Systems Land and C4I of Israel refurbished the tanks with technology and the weapons systems by Australia.
The Army is set to receive 114 more tanks of same model from the US Army.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118180/afp-troops-start-receiving-fixed-new-m4-rifles
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