MANILA, 8 August 2003 — A group of junior officers and enlisted men that staged a failed coup last month against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo succeeded in drawing attention to an old problem: Corruption in the Philippine military. Both Arroyo and top military officials acknowledge the corruption, which Arroyo described in a speech last week as “an underlying problem’’ that must be addressed.

“I admit there is graft and corruption at all levels,’’ said Gen. Narciso Abaya, chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, in a television interview last week. The Vice Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, said that corruption ranges from unauthorized use of vehicles to kickbacks to senior officers.

Past chiefs of staff have attempted cleanups, but Abaya, who took office in April, had launched an intensive effort to whip the 113,000-member military into shape even before the coup attempt, Garcia said.

“That’s what the entire mission of the armed forces is: To get down to the bottom of this corruption because it is like a termite — it’s at the foundation of the organization,’’ Garcia said. Military officials said they did not have figures on the cost of military corruption, but last year the Department of Management and Budget estimated that 10 percent to 50 percent of value of all government contracts goes to bribes and kickbacks. One of the main accusations made by the rebellious soldiers was that military arms and ammunition have ended up in the hands of rebels battling the government, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“All the bullets being recovered from enemy camps ... have marks coming from the (armed forces’) arsenal,’’ said a statement issued by the soldiers during their uprising, which began July 27 and ended peacefully after 19 hours. The soldiers have been charged with rebellion.

Moro Front spokesman Eid Kabalu last week acknowledged that the group has bought weapons and ammunition belonging to the Philippine military, but “not necessarily’’ from the armed forces directly.

Garcia said that members of the military have sold weapons and other materiel, but mostly to third parties, who then sometimes sell it to the rebels.

“When you are operating in the field, in combat, sometimes the supply system accounting gets all fouled up because of fast-moving situations, so it could be easy for someone to declare some ammunition as having been spent,’’ Garcia said. “But that’s not the whole supply room being siphoned off for the enemy.’’ He said that the military is working on stricter controls.

Military corruption is a result of poor housing, equipment and low wages, said Scott Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a risk evaluation firm here. “If you have no resources, you have to find ways to make ends meet. You sell ammunition, you steal, you pillage the civilian population.’’

The United States, which considers its one-time colony a key ally in the war on terrorism, gives the Philippines about $80 million annually in military aid. US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said in an interview last week that he was “very confident that we and the (armed forces) have excellent accountability for the equipment the US provides.’’ Abaya, too, said that there is “no way’’ that military personnel can “skim off’’ any US aid.

But the mutiny has shown that there can be problems after the delivery of US aid. The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation has asked the FBI to help investigate whether some equipment seized from the rebellious officers, including M1-A4 carbines, Barrett sniper rifles, night vision goggles, thermal scopes and scanners, came from US military aid stockpiles.

Arroyo has now formed an independent commission to investigate the reasons for the rebellion and the extent of corruption in the armed forces. In addition, Arroyo last week said she had authorized $2 million to purchase basic equipment, such as boots and field supplies, and that further military pay increases will be enacted by the beginning of 2004. But the lowest-paid private still earns about $75 a month and soldiers’ pay rates lag behind military wage scales in neighboring countries.

Abaya is intent on carrying out procurement reform, Garcia said. For instance, the military has embarked on a 22-year, $6 billion modernization program.