| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
02/10/2012
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)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120210com6.html
