Military projects open to all proponents regardless of country of origin, says defense dept.

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 15): Military projects open to all proponents regardless of country of origin, says defense dept.

Military projects must be open to all bidders regardless of their country of origin, the Department of National Defense (DND) public affairs office chief Arsenio Andolong said Wednesday.

This is stipulated under Republic Act (RA) 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, he said.

"One important point I have to make is under Republic Act 9184, we must open our projects for bidding to all proponents, regardless of their country of origin. We do not and cannot limit it to our traditional allies only," Andolong pointed out.

The Philippines has traditionally sourced its military equipment from the US, Israel, South Korea, and Japan, to name a few.

The DND official made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte announced that China and Russia have agreed to provide armaments and other weaponry to the Armed Forces of the Philippines for its counter-insurgency campaign.

Andolong earlier said that RA 9184 dictates that "we must not limit possible sources of our materiel to only a few countries as this will rob us of the opportunity to acquire what could be the best equipment".

He said technical working groups of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have been conducting market research on new hardware and technologies from many countries, including Russia and China.

"For the record, we also looked at the offerings from Sweden, Germany and France," Andolong said.

"Of course, there are other considerations, such as cost,inter-operability with our existing equipment and personnel capacity," he pointed out.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=923205