The Philippines is seeing few options to upgrade our naval capability. While President Rodrigo Duterte has the final decision, Navy chief Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad sees that the best way to procure the country’s first submarine is through a government-to-government (G2G) route. “I think the best way is include G2G para mawala yung complication ng procurement but it depends on the President,” he told reporters on Aug. 22.
Russia, one of the potential suppliers of the submarines, has offered a soft loan to the Philippine government to be paid over a period of time.
As a maritime nation, he sees the need to acquire submarines sooner as a strategic deterrence to other foreign navies. “If we have submarines, no country will bully us again. I think it’s high time that we have capability para hindi makuha ng kahit anong bansa kung ano ang atin. We have to protect them and it is the Navy that can do that,” Empedrad said. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is currently in Russia for a military exhibit and meetings with defense officials and companies, maintained that other suppliers for submarines are still being considered.
At some point, this is advantageous and at the same time dangerous since government still has no budget for it and if we will dive into acquisition without any budget, we are just putting our state into sham of debt. Good thing that a deal has not been made. Maybe other countries will give us a good deal like Australia, Japan, or India.
Meanwhile, the US a long-time ally of the Philippines has strongly objected the latter’s consideration of acquiring submarines from its rival Russia, saying it will hurt the decades-long alliance and interoperability. There is truth in there since US and Russia (former USSR) are not in good terms even during World War I and II and beyond.
Lastly, Vietnam has six Kilo-class submarines but China probably has 12. Will these two (Russia and Vietnam) countries train the Philippines? But I wonder if they will do it since both of them are claimants to SCS. Also, the challenge really is the training of personnel in case we will have Russian submarine since it is not just about acquiring equipment. As of now, we need to start sending personnel abroad to familiarize themselves with submarines. Interoperability is indeed a very important factor in its acquisition of submarines and said it would be highly prioritized in the procurement. – Jumel G. Estrañero Defense Research Analyst & College Faculty, bluebaby_lemuj@yahoo.com