As part of the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP) effort to gradually shift to territorial defense from internal security operations, the Department of National Defense (DND) confirmed its plan to acquire Javelin anti-tank weapons for the Philippine Army.

"In our collective defense of our country we need to prepare our armed forces including the army on its capability on anti armor and anti-armor capability is one of our primordial. That is why at the early stage they are being trained. We are planning to acquire the Javelin," DND Officer in Charge (OIC) Senior Undersecretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said during the Senate hearing of the Committee of Foreign Relations headed by Senator Imee Marcos.

"We included that in the Horizon 3 your honor. We need to develop our Army capability, our land capability on anti-armor. That is the basic requirements," he added.

Galvez noted that the development of anti-armor capability is a priority for the Philippine Army and Marines because they are the country's last line of defense in case the military fail to interdict possible invaders coming from air and sea.

"Yes sir, it is a priority on the horizon, both the Marines and Army, it is their priority, because we believed that as part of the defense... After we failed to maybe interdict by air or by sea the last defense that we have is by land, and normally in terms of enemy attack the Army and the Marines should be capable of anti-armor," he said.

It can be recalled that in the recent military exercises with the United States which includes the Salaknib and the ongoing Balikatan, both US and Philippine Army forces trained on how to use Javelin anti-tank weapon in a subject matter expert exchange activity, a live-fire drill was also conducted at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija last April 13. Robina Asido/DMS