Military officers watching Reyes

The military officer corps is now watching how Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Angelo Reyes will handle the alleged multimillion-peso irregularities in the Philippine Marines exposed by Navy chief Rear Adm. Guillermo Wong.

Highly placed sources at Camp Aguinaldo said Reyes’ handling of the allegedly massive corruption in the Marines would determine whether he would be named secretary of defense after he retires next month.

Wong had earlier exposed the alleged irregularities involving the Philippine Marines’ purchase of some P3.8 million worth of helmets and P7.2 million worth of high-powered submachine guns.

But Marine officers claimed to be grievously offended when Wong publicly berated them. The officers threatened to withdraw support from Wong if the AFP high command did not relieve him.

"We’ll have to see yet how General Reyes will address these concerns. A failure on his part would serve as a dark blot on his record and may affect his chances on being named defense chief," he said.

The defense post was reportedly offered by Malacañang to Reyes as a "reward" for his role at EDSA people power II. Reyes will end his tour of duty on March 17 upon reaching mandatory retirement age of 56.

"(Reyes’) last three weeks in office are being watched closely by both the officer corps and Malacañang. Much of his bid for the defense post rest on how he will be able to clean up the mess at the Marines," said a ranking military official.

In the controversy, Reyes sided with the Marine officer corps, saying that in a clash between individuals and an institution, the former should be sacrificed and the latter preserved.

He said Wong had "violated the cherished traditions" of the Marines, a unit under the Navy, and downplayed the quarrel as a mere "conflict in leadership style."

Wong, however, said his ouster was caused by the Marines’ refusal to implement reforms.

The official said Reyes move to sack Wong instead of acting on the reported irregularities could be part of his tack to increase his chances of bagging the defense portfolio.

Another military officer, who also requested anonymity, provided details on the two irregularities that Wong had earlier exposed.

Documents showed some P3.8 million worth of inferior Kevlar helmets were purchased during the time of then Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa, the current commandant of the Joint Command and Staff College at Camp Aguinaldo.

Espinosa, reportedly a favorite of the President, is one of the five senior generals vying for the AFP top post.

The helmets were said to have been purchased without public bidding and the procurement was divided into 14 purchase orders involving seven suppliers in an attempt to circumvent government requirements on such transactions.

Subsequent investigations revealed that only two of these supply firms — ATRIA and Presel Trading — were legitimate firms while the rest were said to be "fly-by-night" operations.

The official said only 229 Kevlar helmets out of the 799 ordered were delivered and were not US-made as required but Taiwanese, which does not meet the battlefield specifications and can even be fatal to users.

The official likewise revealed that the 100 Heckler and Koch (HK-MP5) submachine guns, worth P7.2 million, never reached the Marines but were suspected to have been sold to gunrunners.

The purchase was allegedly done early last year during the term of then Marine commandant Brig. Gen. Percival Subala supposedly for the use of Marines in Mindanao and counter-terrorist missions in Metro Manila.

The purchase from Trimark Ventures was cleared by the Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

On June 21 last year, the PNP-FED released the firearms from its vault where they were deposited for documentation by Trimark Ventures.

Seven days later, the Marines wrote the PNP-FED that the purchase of the HK-MP5 was "not consummated due to budgetary constraints."

Weeks later, some of the submachine guns were recovered by police from suspected Taiwanese gunrunners in a raid at a resort in Subic, Zambales.