AFP modernization fund: Gibo wants BCDA audited

MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. is pushing for an audit of revenues earned by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for the use of former military bases.

In yesterday’s interview with “Storycon” on One News, Teodoro said the BCDA was able to remit only P45 billion in the past 26 years.

“I’ve been asking for an accounting of that for a long time,” he said. “All of its net revenue should have gone to the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) Modernization Trust Fund.”

Republic Act 7197, which amended the BCDA Act of 1992, allocates a significant portion of the agency’s revenues to the AFP.

Teodoro said even military personnel are demanding an audit of the revenues of the BCDA, which was established to manage former military bases and properties.

“I will use the legal process if they do not want to,” Teodoro said.

The BCDA is currently under scrutiny over the proposed Pax Silica AI hub in New Clark City.

Citing “spinoff benefits” for the country, Teodoro said he supports the project, but expressed the need to ensure that critical technologies would be protected.

“These are base lands that are very near the operating bases of AFP,” he said. “This is dangerous so it should not just be purely corporate and regulatory.”

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