Instead of hitting stupid white balls, shouldn’t generals and other military commanders be striking at known strongholds of enemies of the state?

What business do military officials have in keeping golf courses, which can hardly be defined as “military assets”?

No wonder we are not winning the war against communists, secessionists, and terrorists.

Our commanders are leisurely strolling along well-tended grass fields with caddies following them instead of manning the battlefields with infantry and artillery behind them.

The most that military top brass can do is to “beat  their gold clubs into rifles” and maximize revenues from  golf courses to buy tanks, planes, helicopters, ships, and other military hardware to yank the Armed Forces into modernity and achieve regional parity in arms.

Thus,we agree with and support the Senate in advising the Department of National Defense to take advantage of its five golf courses in Metro Manila and make some profit out of these to finance its stagnant modernization program.

Senate committee on finance chairman Franklin Drilon noted that the five DND-Armed Forces-owned golf courses at Camp Aguinaldo, Villamor Airbase, Veterans Memorial Medical Center,  and Fort Bonifacio were practically idle assets considering that little or no revenues are generated from these properties.

Using a rough estimate of 30 hectares per golf course at P30,000 per square meter, Drilon noted that the five properties would carry a total value of at least P45 billion.

“At least P45 billion in assets of the AFP are just being used as golf courses. I don’t think that we need these golf courses. What we need is to modernize our Armed Forces,” a major broadsheet quoted Drilon as saying.

He added: “We are asking the DND to look at these assets for purposes of a source of revenue for the modernization of our Armed Forces. We are not saying that they should sell the assets, but certainly they should have a better income from these assets worth at least P45 billion.”

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the DND could just offer a long-term lease on the five golf courses and use the income from these to continuously support the AFP’s modernization program.

Drilon cited the example of the VMMC golf course, which the DND said generates a mere P1.6 million in revenues annually.

“That is the kind of income that is being realized out of this asset. It is very clear that by better utilization of the assets of the AFP, we can modernize our Armed Forces. Our Armed Forces, in terms of equipment, manpower is in a very sorry state, is very inadequate,” he said.

Drilon said the additional revenues could also benefit the AFP in terms of increasing its personnel, considering that the military staff to civilian population ratio of the Philippines is the lowest in Southeast Asia. 

He pointed out that the AFP has only 125,000 active personnel that serve 95 million Filipinos across the country.

“This is a ratio of 1:750. In other countries like Thailand, for 63.5 million Thais, they have 305,000 members of the armed forces. For Indonesia, with 245 million population, they have 438,000 in the armed forces. In Malaysia with 28 million population, they have 109,000 in the armed forces. Here, we see the inadequacy of our Armed Forces. In the view of the committee, there are enough assets that can respond to the needs of the AFP if these assets are properly utilized,” Drilon said.

“For the past several years, there is simply no initiative taken to look for other sources of funds. They just rely on the GAA (General Appropriations Act) when in fact, right there on their doorsteps, are assets which can be utilized, which are totally underutilized. You cannot justify 150 hectares of prime land in Manila used only for golf courses,” he added.