MANILA, Jan 11 — In a large machine shop on the outskirts of Manila, workmen check the fit of a bullet-resistant front window on a gleaming black Ford Expedition.
The chassis of a stripped-down Toyota Land Cruiser in the next bay is getting its flooring measured for a Kevlar blanket that can withstand a grenade explosion; on another vehicle, steel plates are being welded into the back door.
A general election is four months away and order books at Exo Armoring are filling up fast as wealthy candidates — or those with rich backers — get extra protection during a tense time when political rivalries can heat up dangerously.
Yesterday marked the official start of the campaigning period for the May 10 election and the start of a nationwide ban on carrying guns in public until after the polls. More than 100,000 policemen and military troops are being deployed to provide security.
“The 12 months before an election are our busiest period,” said the firm’s managing director Dante Manalang, raising his voice over the shriek of a power drill.
Running for public office in the Philippines is a high-stakes venture in which unscrupulous candidates have long used violence against rivals and election officials to secure a win at the polls.
That came to a shocking head in last November’s election-related massacre of 57 civilians, including 30 journalists, in Maguindanao in the southern Philippines.
At another company, Utah-based International Armoring Corporation (IAC), which has made armour-protected vehicles for more than 30 heads of state, there has been a sharp rise in inquiries from the Philippines.
“We got around 35 in December, far more than one and two a month we usually get from here,” IAC marketing director Tom Fleenor told The Straits Times.
He attributes the rise to the coming election and politicians and businessmen reviewing their security arrangements after the Maguindanao massacre.
The powerful Ampatuan clan blamed for the massacre protected its power base with a large private army and insulated itself with dense layers of security. But even that failed to stop a clan member from being assassinated a few years ago.
Last year, IAC delivered two armour- protected Hummer H2 off-road vehicles to the Ampatuans for their large fleet of bullet-proof vehicles.
But this is a business in which the identity of the client is often not known.
Manalang believes that most of the work his firm does for Filipino politicians during the election seasons are for candidates running for local government, and especially mayors in areas known for feuding between rival families and clans.
“They know who is going after them and need protection,” he said. That fits with the pattern of past polls.
Traditionally, candidates running as governors, mayors and local councillors are at the sharp end of election violence. It is rare, though not unknown, for members of Congress to be assassinated.
At Exo Armoring, it takes around three months to armour-protect a sport utility vehicle (SUV) to withstand an attack by a high-powered rifle like an M-16 — and at a cost of around US$75,000 (RM252,000), it roughly doubles the price of an SUV bought in the Philippines.
The armour, made from a special steel called Armormax imported from Sweden, and three-inch thick, bullet-resistant glass and ram bumpers add about a tonne to the weight of the vehicle. Airless tyres called “runflats” can take shrapnel hits and let a vehicle under fire still make a nifty 50kmh getaway.
“We did a Nissan X-Trail a couple of years ago that was ambushed on a busy road in Manila during the daytime,” said Exo Armoring director Arvin Villanueva.
“The client... was attacked by two gunmen on the back of motorcycles. The vehicle took 42 shots from M-16 Baby Armalites and still managed to escape,” he said.
While elections are good for sales, most orders come from the business sector, and especially the prosperous Filipino-Chinese community, a favoured target of kidnapping syndicates. The firm works on around 40 vehicles a year.
Fleenor said the IAC plans to open an assembly plant in the Philippines to grow its business here by cutting the cost of shipping vehicles from the United States. That and customs duties can inflate the final price tag on a US-imported armour-protected SUV to an eye-watering US$250,000 — an amount still well within the means of some of this country’s wealthiest political families. — The Straits Times
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
