DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
2/10/2012
While the prosecution’s case in the Senate continues to crumble amid growing public revulsion, and with certain religious sects rallying in front of the Supreme Court (SC) against Malacañang’s assaults, the “useful idiot” in the Palace continues his inane programs serving US and Western interests.
The newest toys that BS Aquino III is acquiring for his policy of “territorial defense,” announced through his equally inane Defense Chief Voltaire Gazmin, include multi-purpose attack helicopters, destroyers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Earlier announced was the acquisition of a squadron of F-16s and Hamilton class cutters (of which one had been delivered, refurbished, and christened BRP Gregorio del Pilar). All these are part of a P70-billion (roughly P10 billion annual) modernization budget for eight years.
Considering that an F-16 costs around $70 million (or P3 billion each, fetching P36 billion for a squadron of 12), very little else can really be bought, with the ones already acquired either obsolete or soon to be so by the end of eight years.
The F-16 is a “fourth-generation jet fighter;” its military aviation technology is now classified as 6th generation. Meanwhile, China, the perceived “territorial threat” of Malacañang (with the obvious prodding of the US), already has an undisclosed fleet of Chengdu J-20s.
Further, unlike the Philippines, most Asean countries are already flying 5th generation fighters. Malaysia, another country that has territorial issues with us, has its F/A-18D Hornets, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Sukhoi Su-30. India, for its part, has developed the Sukhoi PAK FA with its Russian partners.
Given these realities, acquiring a squadron of F-16s is merely G.I. Joe stuff — toys for the really small boys. And these are definitely no different from the World War II-vintage Hamilton cutters being bruited about by Malacañang. As for the UAVs already in the Philippines, even retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Gen. Ramon Farolan in his newspaper column suspects the recent bombing of the Abu Sayyaf lair in Sulu, allegedly killing its top three commanders, as being done by US UAVs — not PeNoy Broncos.
A Predator drone, widely used by the US in its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, costs $4.5 million or P200 million each. Maybe it would cost a little less if it is only for surveillance and reconnaissance, but the drone itself is just a small part of an entire infrastructure consisting of satellite links, command and control, etc.
The yearning for multi-purpose attack helicopters by Malacañang and Gazmin is clearly out of synch with the real needs of the country, where several natural disasters affect hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, who are most often in desperate need of rescue and emergency airlift operations.
As for anti-submarine ships, Malacañang would do better to build up the Navy’s drydock facilities for repair and maintenance, as well as to focus on the building of ships to keep those still afloat floating and to produce new ones that run and don’t sink. In other words, we have to build our own shipbuilding capabilities.
It is now an old tenet that the strength of a nation is in its economic and industrial capacity for with it, a nation can build and buy the best. In the armaments arena, if you cannot have the latest then you are the most likely loser in a war.
The acquisition of G.I. Joe toy-weapons is useful only to the traders of these armaments, including US congressmen and senators who are peddling these in the Third World. G.I. Joe toys will do nothing to enhance the territorial defense of the Philippines especially when the real invaders have long infiltrated the country like the US, which already has its troops and drones in our territory all these years.
Even the purchase of G.I. Joe toy guns, ships and planes being directed by the real G.I. Joes is meant to sustain the Western economies and their defense industries now in dire straits — with funds taken from RP’s share in, say, Malampaya. It’s the classic “frying us in our own oil” scheme, where the US and its allies get to devour the feast.
If injected into the coconut industry to develop its downstream products and industries, P10 billion even just for a year would already start a massive economic upsurge.
There is a growing global demand for healthy nutritional alternatives that coconut provides, from the humble virgin coconut oil (VCO) to new anti-Alzheimer medication derived from it; to packaging and marketing of coconut water; to the development of “nutraceuticals” for the medical and beauty industries; to high-end chemicals with applications even in the explosives industry; to eco-textile against soil erosion for countries such as China. P10 billion for just one year injected into the local dairy industry can spur local production of dairy products that will save the country $1 billion in dairy imports every year.
Just think: Investments into these two grassroots agro-industrial commodities alone will help improve the income of at least 40 percent of the population in the agricultural sector and boost both the industrial and service sectors’ vitality.
Let us not play games with our nation’s future anymore. Only when we purge our nation of various foreign economic and political subversives can we get to provide ourselves with a stable economy — first, through a strong industrial base and, second, through a strong Armed Forces that will keep these pesky infiltrators out.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN’s HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on “The struggle against the Rule of Farce;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
