AFP gets $1.2M worth of engineering equipment from China

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday received from the Chinese government some $1.2 million worth of engineering equipment which would be used by Filipino soldiers involved in the ongoing “humanitarian offensive" in Basilan and Sulu provinces. Senior Col. Liu Zhongxiang, Chinese defense and Armed Forces Attaché, said the donation of equipment, which included six graders and six bulldozers, is expected to boost efforts to re-establish “mutual trust" between both countries’ military establishments. For his part, Maj. Gen. Cyriano Austria, AFP chief of engineers, said the equipment is part of China’s pledged assistance for 2006. This year, the Chinese government has pledged assistance amounting to 15 million Rinminbi for the Philippine military. The Chinese government has given 10 million Rinminbi in engineering equipment to the AFP since 2004. Austria said a Navy transport ship will be shipping the brand new engineering equipment to Basilan and Sulu “as soon as possible." Austria said the Navy ship is presently on its way to Manila from Basilan province, where two battalions of military engineers arrived last week to participate in humanitarian efforts in the strife-torn area, and in the nearby province of Sulu. “They will be shipped to Mindanao where our (engineers) are engaged in humanitarian offensive… We are not bringing guns and artillery pieces but brand new engineering equipment," said Austria. Humanitarian efforts in the two provinces are being pursued by the government hand in hand with the ongoing military operations aimed at destroying the Abu Sayyaf Group, a local terrorist group with links to Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. In 2005, China handed over to the Philippine military similar types of engineering equipment which are still being used by military engineers in rolling out projects in various parts of Luzon. - GMANews.TV