Philippine military to recruit more soldiers, buy more aircraft

The Philippine military said Wednesday that it will recruit 20,000 new soldiers in the next three years to beef up its force currently estimated at 120,000. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said the military is also looking at acquiring more ships, aircraft and equipment. In an interview with local television station ABS-CBN News Channel, Bautista said the recruitment of more soldiers will entail a cost of about 10 billion pesos (223.53 million U.S. dollars). "The ideal situation is that we would have enough troops to address all our mandates. There has been no increase in the strength of the Armed Forces for a long long time, given that our population has increased tremendously also," he said. The military had proposed the recruitment of more soldiers as early as last year. The plan was to recruit 19,204 army officers and men and 796 navy and marine officers and men.