Philippine Army acquires life-saving helmets, medicines from US
Davao City (6 July) -- Thousands of Philippine Army troops will soon be wearing life-saving Kevlar helmets and carrying blood-clotting medicine on their deployment to combat duties.
U.S. Ambassador Harry K. Thomas, Jr. turned over 25,000 Kevlar helmets and 20,000 Quick Clot Wound Packs to Philippine Army (PA) Commanding General LtGen. Reynaldo Mapagu during a simple ceremony at PA headquarters in Quezon City on June 10.
The Kevlar helmets are made of the same materials used in Kevlar bulletproof vests. The blood-clotting packs promote cauterization of wounds to prevent the injured soldier from dying due to blood loss while help is on the way.
"Now Philippine soldiers will have helmets to protect them from fatal wounds to the head, and medical supplies that will help keep the wounded alive until the evacuation helicopters arrive," said Ambassador Thomas.
Several thousand additional Kevlar helmets and blood-clotting packs were also allocated to the Philippine Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.
Under the two countries' military cooperation programs, the Philippine government bought the military items at prices that were only one to ten percent of their original purchase price. The life-saving items were part of bigger batches of equipment and supplies worth about 1.15 billion pesos that the U.S. government has been delivering to the Philippine military.
Through US-RP bilateral programs, the Armed Forces of the Philippines have saved approximately 460 million pesos in recent equipment purchases. Aside from the Kevlar helmets and blood-clotting packs, remaining items in the pipeline include night vision equipment, life-sustaining first-aid kits, water purification units, and cargo trucks. (PIA) [top]
