CLARK FREEPORT – The government will have a Big Brother capability when its first surveillance aircraft comes anytime in the next 100 days.
“We will have surveillance aircraft that they call ‘eye in the sky’,” Defense Sec. Norberto Gonzalez said in an interview here recently during his inspection of 18 SF-260 trainer aircraft being assembled by the Aerotech firm for the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
Gonzalez said that while the surveillance aircraft will be for the PAF, they will also have “civilian applications like tracking down those cutting trees and also the smugglers who crisscross our borders.”
The surveillance aircraft, he said, are among the attack helicopters and medium lift planes expected to arrive in the next 100 days. But he refused to give more details on the purchases, saying they have remained “secret”.
Such aircraft has been labeled in the US as “Big Brother” which, in the Philippines, is better known as a television program where live cameras installed in all parts of a house monitor all movements of household members for public entertainment and viewing.
During the era of the US Air Force in this former military base, there were persistent reports that the Americans used unmanned surveillance aircraft to secure the perimeters of Clark, although this had never been confirmed by US officials.
After the Americans left Clark in 1991, at least one such aircraft, with marks indicating it belonged to the US military, was discovered on the roof of the Puregold duty free shop here. The item, however, was later retrieved by the US military which gave cash reward to its finders.
Civil rights groups in other countries have criticized such surveillance equipment as capable of infringing on the privacies of people.
The purchase of the surveillance aircraft, attack helicopters and medium lift planes would be funded by the government.
“We have to thank Congress which has finally allowed the armed forces to go into multi-year obligational contract, meaning that the money we expect on a year to year basis we can already spend today. So we can contract big acquisitions,” he said.
He noted that the law entitled the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to a modernization budget of P330 billion. “We have spent only about P28 billion of this amount so we still have a lot of money, theoretically. So far, Congress has been allocating part of the total amount on a yearly basis,” he said.
Gonzales said that the AFP is still far from being fully modernized but added that its capabilities are “no longer embarrassing.”
“It’s not really a matter of being modern, but about getting the right equipment for the correct mission. We are looking at the needs of the country in terms of defense in the next 10 years,” he said.
Gonzales also said “we are at a stage wherein we have to take care of our internal defense and a little bit of our external defense capability.”
“We will have surveillance aircraft that they call ‘eye in the sky’,” Defense Sec. Norberto Gonzalez said in an interview here recently during his inspection of 18 SF-260 trainer aircraft being assembled by the Aerotech firm for the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
Gonzalez said that while the surveillance aircraft will be for the PAF, they will also have “civilian applications like tracking down those cutting trees and also the smugglers who crisscross our borders.”
The surveillance aircraft, he said, are among the attack helicopters and medium lift planes expected to arrive in the next 100 days. But he refused to give more details on the purchases, saying they have remained “secret”.
Such aircraft has been labeled in the US as “Big Brother” which, in the Philippines, is better known as a television program where live cameras installed in all parts of a house monitor all movements of household members for public entertainment and viewing.
During the era of the US Air Force in this former military base, there were persistent reports that the Americans used unmanned surveillance aircraft to secure the perimeters of Clark, although this had never been confirmed by US officials.
After the Americans left Clark in 1991, at least one such aircraft, with marks indicating it belonged to the US military, was discovered on the roof of the Puregold duty free shop here. The item, however, was later retrieved by the US military which gave cash reward to its finders.
Civil rights groups in other countries have criticized such surveillance equipment as capable of infringing on the privacies of people.
The purchase of the surveillance aircraft, attack helicopters and medium lift planes would be funded by the government.
“We have to thank Congress which has finally allowed the armed forces to go into multi-year obligational contract, meaning that the money we expect on a year to year basis we can already spend today. So we can contract big acquisitions,” he said.
He noted that the law entitled the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to a modernization budget of P330 billion. “We have spent only about P28 billion of this amount so we still have a lot of money, theoretically. So far, Congress has been allocating part of the total amount on a yearly basis,” he said.
Gonzales said that the AFP is still far from being fully modernized but added that its capabilities are “no longer embarrassing.”
“It’s not really a matter of being modern, but about getting the right equipment for the correct mission. We are looking at the needs of the country in terms of defense in the next 10 years,” he said.
Gonzales also said “we are at a stage wherein we have to take care of our internal defense and a little bit of our external defense capability.”
