The letter of retired Army colonel Jose Guillem (“PH has lots of capabilities to make guns, etc.,” Opinion, 11/11/16) was an eye-opener. Guillem said that under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986), the Armed Forces of the Philippines had a remarkable Self-Reliant Defense Program, but it was dropped when Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.
But there is more than meets the eye. A participant in the program confided to me that his problem was that some top AFP officials preferred to import arms and materials because transactions were negotiated and payoffs made abroad.
The program, in any case, must be restarted under honest government officials. After a few years of producing arms and materials, local gun manufacturers will have become good enough to produce them for export.
Corollarily, the government can set up plants for local vehicle manufacturing, perhaps in joint venture with a foreign company, to supply exclusively all the vehicle requirements of the national and local governments, as well as of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs). Instead of buying expensive SUVs, legislators will have to get locally-produced vehicles, with brands such as Digong I, and Digong II.
After five years, the local car manufacturers shall have become accomplished vehicle makers, and government ownership of the manufacturing plants can then be auctioned off to local private investors. These Filipino manufacturer/s will then be able to compete in the business of supplying the private sector and the export market with locally made vehicles. If the Indians can produce Mahindra, why can’t the equally-talented (at the very least) Filipinos not produce Digong cars?
That the various government units should patronize locally-produced goods and subsidize our local workers, instead of the workers of other countries that bully Filipinos, is not an empty dream; it is something that we should start building on.
RENE TORRES, rentorres@yahoo.com