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No Air, No Force: A Wake-up Call; the debate in the Senate
Topic Started: Feb 7 2006, 02:28 AM (7,460 Views)
pantherscout78
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Feb 7 2006, 02:28 AM
not certain whether this has been posted here before, but everyone on PDFF should read this. soon after the PAF controversially retired its last remaining fighter jets last year (2005), Senator Richard Gordon's privilege speech on the state of the Air Force provoked a wide-ranging Senate debate, allowing a rare insight into the thoughts of our elected decision-makers on the subject of national defense.
__________________________________________________________________

No Air, No Force: A Wake-Up Call

PRIVILEGE SPEECH OF SENATOR GORDON

Journals of the Senate, 13th Congress Second Regular Session
Session No. 29, Monday, October 10, 2005



Winston Churchill once said

“For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power, and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank. Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence.”

As we discuss this issue, we do not know what is prowling in our waters. Are there smugglers, poachers, terrorists, pirates lurking in the seas in and around our country?

Asia used to marvel at our air force which was the first and the best air force in the region when it was established on July 1, 1947. In 1955, we were among the first nations in Asia to fly jets with 35 Lockheed T-33s. Our F-86 Sabres exhibited superior capability over our Southeast Asian neighbors and our F-86 aircrews helped bring peace to the Belgian Congo as UN peacekeepers. We were also one of the first in Asia to enter the supersonic age in 1965 with the acquisition of the F-5 Freedom Fighters. We had the best pilots and ground support personnel and had the famed Blue Diamonds.

It is sad to note, however, that 40 years later, we have no more air force. And to be without an air force in this day and age is completely unacceptable. We have gone from supersonic to subsonic, in fact, to “subsobsonic”. In the meantime, our neighbors have become stronger. What used to be Asia’s number one air force has become Asia’s used to be.

If we are to compare the aerial capability of the country to our neighbors, let me cite a few examples. But you will see a more complete listing in the slide before you. Singapore has 59 F-l6s, not to mention their F-5s. It has even the E2C Sukhoi, which is an advanced aircraft that can prowl the seas. We do not need it but a small country like Singapore has it. C-130s, they have 10; KC-135. They have four refueling areas. Today, Malaysia has eight F-18s, the frontline fighter bomber of the United States Navy, which are the Hornets and are still being used by the U.S. Malaysia also has 17 MiG-29s; in addition to that, it also has F-5s and other aircraft. Vietnam has 84 Sukhoi and MiG-29s as well. Singapore also has Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) for surveillance purposes. Though we may not need AWACS, the fact that our neighbors have the luxury of possessing equipment they do not need clearly illustrates just how dire our circumstances.

Similarly, if we are to base the comparison on number of aircraft alone, China has 8,836 aircraft; Taiwan has 891 aircraft; Singapore has 351 aircraft; Thailand has 917 aircraft including a not often used aircraft carrier made by Spain which they do not really need but, nonetheless, it has; Malaysia has 274 aircraft and their Navy will soon acquire six submarines; Indonesia has 628 aircraft; and Vietnam has 467 aircraft. Meanwhile, the Philippines has 120 alleged aircraft, only 90 of which are functioning and all of which are trainer aircraft. In such a situation, how can we demand these countries to respect our territory when we cannot even patrol it? We might just as well declare neutrality because we do not have the capability to defend ourselves anyway.

These figures do not take into consideration surveillance capability. Indonesia, for example, has 19 military radars and 18 civilian radars to support it. We have one radar in Poro Point left by the U.S. Armed Forces. The range of this radar cannot even reach Southern Luzon. So we are pretty much blind in terms of radar capability in Southern Luzon, much less in the Visayas and Mindanao.

We are a maritime country with 7,106 islands, one part land to nine parts water, but we have no ship. We hardly have any ship. If we have ships, we would still need a capable air force to protect them, something we do not have either. Our coastline is twice the size of the coastline of the United States at 36,289 kilometers, yet we only have 90 functioning planes to cover it, placing the ratio at one rickety plane for every 403 kilometers.

During the U.S. bases debates, I already predicted that without the U.S. umbrella of external defense, we would be all air and no force. Today, we have no air and no force to meet the dangers that our country faces. We do not even control the air anymore.

We have conflicting claims in the Spratlys. If a party-claimant decides to plant their troops, we would not even know that they were there. It would take the Navy, with its rickety ships, days to go there, whereas, if we had a functioning F-5, it would only take 30 minutes or an hour to get there.

It is unacceptable that the Philippines has a border patrol agreement with Malaysia and Indonesia that requires contributions in terms of air and naval assets but we have no means to gather intelligence and information even within our own territory and we have nothing to contribute.

If we had a disaster in the scale of MV Dona Paz that took 4,342 lives back in 1987, making it the world’s worst peace-time maritime tragedy, even bigger than the Titanic, do we have the aerial equipment to conduct search-and-rescue operations?

Disaster after disaster has befallen our nation. The earthquake that devastated Baguio in July 1990 caused landslides that made it virtually impossible to reach Baguio via land travel. I am sure that the series of typhoons that devastated Quezon in 2004 is still fresh in our minds. Parts of Aurora and Quezon were cut off by floods, bridges were destroyed and there was no way to reach our stranded people except via air. Unfortunately, our air force did not have the aircraft that would have enabled it to land in the area. Hence, soldiers and volunteers had to walk to these areas, making the process of rescue operations extremely arduous. In fact, it exacerbated the already weak frames of our helicopters that had to go and traverse those very severe conditions along the Quezon mountain range.

If we will recall, in the Bente-Otso de Mayo incident sometime in the ‘60s, we had to rely on American helicopters to rescue our people in Central Luzon who were completely marooned and who had to be supplied from the air.

Right now, after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake suffered by Pakistan that has already taken 30,000 lives and still rising, they are asking for assistance despite the fact that they have more helicopters than we do. In fact, I think they have about 247 helicopters. They are still asking for more helicopters from the world to assist them in the rescue and rehabilitation effort.

What if another disaster of this magnitude happens to the country? Are we prepared to deal with it? We have no equipment such as Med Evacuation aircraft or heavy lift aircraft to offer, and we have had to rely on the assistance from the US., time and again, to help us out during times of crisis.

According to the 2004 ranking of the emergency disasters data base, the Philippines ranks fourth in the list of most disaster-prone nations. Whether we speak of a land-based or a maritime disaster, the importance of air capability in terms of conducting search-and-rescue operations as well as reaching areas that are no longer passable by land, like what happened in Baguio, in Quezon and in Central Luzon, cannot be downplayed. Our inability to reach our people quickly can spell the difference between life and death. Right now, we only have two C-130s that can be used for rescue-and-evacuation operations. About six months ago, I took one of the two because there was only one C-130 operating to get Red Cross supplies to Sulu. And if that plane had crashed, then there would be no C-130 to supply our airmen or our people in Mindanao and Visayas, and no capability to medevac our wounded in that area.

It is objectionable that the annual cost of maritime destruction that the country bears lies at P22 billion, as shown by an AFP study. The significance of this amount to our cash-strapped coffers cannot be overemphasized, especially in terms of stimulating economic development and uplifting the general quality of our people’s life. Furthermore, the armed forces is tasked with protecting estimated hydrocarbon deposits of oil amounting to 1.7 billion barrels worth $26.22 billion and gas amounting to 16.766 cubic feet worth $46 billion. In addition, an AFP study showed that the country is losing $79 billion annually because of its inability to tap our marine resources in our exclusive economic zone. This is a clear illustration of the economic danger that we cannot defeat nor deter.

It is abhorrent that the reign of terror of the Abu Sayyaf which victimized our people and visitors, as the world watched, could have ended a year earlier than it did. There was a time when members of the Abu Sayyaf were spotted from the air as they were trying to escape after their nefarious activity in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. There were no helicopters to chase the ASG and since there was no radio communications capability, the pilots could not even deliver the message to the Philippine Navy boats on the water to interdict the ASG in Mindanao where they were headed. And so, the Abu Sayyaf were able to escape to the consternation and eternal embarrassment of this nation.

It is horrifying to contemplate the scenario of terrorists using a plane loaded with explosives to bomb the Twin Towers of the United States. It is not inconceivable if they can do the same thing to bomb the Malampaya oil depot or even for that matter the Pandacan depot, which is right smack in the middle of Manila by getting a Lear jet from Subic Air in Manila and loading it with bomb. Even if we knew of a plan of such an attack, without a capable air force, what can we do about it? This clearly poses dangers to the security of the nation. Two helicopters guard Malampaya and, certainly, a Lear jet, plying at particularly supersonic speed, will be able to outrun any helicopter in the area.

It is appalling that we cannot even meet the AFP’s needs for internal security operations, such as protecting our major installations and infrastructure, nor can we protect our air space from aerial intrusion.

I repeatedly said that our air force is blind. We do not have low-range surveillance aircraft. We only have one aircraft that is able to do that for the entire country. And right now, we do not know what is plying the seas. We are not able to detect what kind of maritime traffic we have. Our regular commercial traffic is blind. We do not have that capability to look at the patterns of maritime travel in our waters.

If we had this capability to take a look at something unusual or something suspicious, we can even, hopefully, send an air force jet immediately within half an hour to inspect. In fact, if we get this low-range surveillance aircraft, it can practically paint a picture, on a GPS, so that we can even bring it as a way of protesting to the other nations who are intruding into our waters.

Right now, we cannot even offer proof because the only plane we have has a snapshot camera. It has to go down 3,000 feet so that it is putting its crew in harm’s way to take a look at what kind of seacraft is operating down below.

Our lack of air cover, therefore, invites abuse by other nations. Not only can we not show proof, but it invites abuse by other nations because they know that we do not have the muscle to hack up our convictions with regard to protecting our national territory. Let us remember the case of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, all of which had neutrality policies. But we all know that weakness invites aggression. And these nations found themselves under attack by Germany, not just once, in World War I, but also in World War II on May 10, 1940, because they had no military capability to repel the attack. Germany just marched through these countries. How can our neighbors respect us when they regularly get away with poaching in our territory because we cannot even patrol and protect our oil lanes and sea lanes? A capable air force is the modern-day version of gun-boat diplomacy. That is why aircraft carriers are used by the United States which they park alongside what they feel is a recalcitrant nation just to show that they have aircraft that can immediately interdict that nation.

But where is the Philippines? We do not even have the air force anymore that can be significantly menacing to any country within Southeast Asia. Without the muscle to back up our talk, we are constrained to stay very silent as our borders are violated. We are constrained to go to the bargaining table. Right now, we cannot even detect these violators. Can you imagine that? We do not even know that our air space is being violated, but even if we could, we do not have the capability to repel them either. This exposes us to grave political dangers.

In fact, isa pang nakakatawa dito sa ating sitwasyon is that everyday there are commercial aircraft that should be charged for flying over our air space. We do not even know how many of them pass over our air space. So, we are even losing income from these overflights.

It is tragic that even our undersea archeological wealth, such as the ruins of the galleon trade, ends up in the hands of treasure hunters because we cannot patrol our territory. And by the time we find out, the treasures from these historical ruins are gone. We do not have the surveillance capability to spot these thieves, and in the process, we forego a certain piece of our history and our soul as a nation. We are a nation that has no glory stories, only stories of our victimization. We have precious little appreciation of the importance of knowing our history, and every legacy lost escalates the scale of this tragedy. The most abominable thing of all is for this Senate not to be able to do anything about it.

Sana bigyan nila ng priority ang AFP..

Coup de' tat is a product of demoralized AFP..

Sen Osmena lacks foresight.. yari sa akin yan sa eleksyon..

di ko boboto yan.. ang tanga kc..

Nagmamarunong di naman marunong.. :headbang:
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City Hunter
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I've updated Sen. Pimentel about that review on the L-159 deal and the possibility of taking into consideration the Korean Golden Eagle. Also, sent a note of support to Sen. Gordon. Have to think of a good letter to Sen. Osmena yet. As for Sen. Biazon, I think I have to do a personal visit since he hasn't replied to any of my mails yet.

Mga peeps, why don't we do an e-mail brigade on our officials. Maybe with our collective efforts some sense can be made. And hopefully proper sense at that.
Command is about authority, about appointment to a position. Effective leadership is different. It must be learned and practiced in order for it to rise to the level of art. You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment but you cannot lead without it; and without leadership, command is a hollow experience. .. a vacuum often filled with mistrust and ignorance.

Gen. Eric K. Shinseki
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GKB02
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comrade CH, we can start this barrage by giving us the email address for this officials if you have it, but if you dont were can i(we) get the contact details for this officials? tnx :thumb:
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el_commandante
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I am not going to vote for Senator Osmena again. ipagdasal ko na sana hindi siya maging presidente ng Pilipinas. dahil kapag nangyari iyan, our air force would be abolished and becomes a mere army air corp :headbang:
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City Hunter
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http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/sen13th.htm

The above link is the Senate site for the present senators. Click each pic and they have a short summary and e-mail addresses. I'm hoping I could work on the angle of using Jude Estrada who is said to be a PAF official to get Sen. Jinggoy and Sen. Loi Estrada to help out on the PAF modernization idea. Still have to find a way to link with Jude though.
Command is about authority, about appointment to a position. Effective leadership is different. It must be learned and practiced in order for it to rise to the level of art. You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment but you cannot lead without it; and without leadership, command is a hollow experience. .. a vacuum often filled with mistrust and ignorance.

Gen. Eric K. Shinseki
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GKB02
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:thumb: thanks comrade CH...
first salvo is up.. :drunk:
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Tora^2
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While F14s are being phased out by the USN, they would have stilled played a vital air defense role since they are best used not against bombers like the TU22M Backfire or the Tu16 Badger which the PLA still has a lot of.

The Tomcat/Phoenix duo is best utilized against low-flying cruise missiles that could be carrying nucelar warheads or can imperil vessels of the Philippine Fleet.

Going back to the tpic, it would appear that high ranking officials would rather pursue smaller wars against lightly-armed insurgents like the NPA and terrorist groups like Abu Sayyyaf.

Compared to building an external defense-centered AFP, they could percieve that fighting insurgencies are much cheaper to fight. In fighting the NPA and JI, all you need are guys with rifles. The only things they would need would be decent rifles, reliable radios and helos to provide CAS and to ship them to and from the front lines. To train fighter pilots and to purchase and maintain 1st-line fighter jets and AIP attack subs, they think would cost much more.

You can also see it from a historical standpoint. Historians pointed out that the AFP's real ancestors aren't the Katipunan and the Army of the 1st Philippine Republic as the AFP claims. They are traced to the Philippine Scouts and the Philippine Constabulary, units designed to fight insurrections and uprsings while the Philippine Department of the US Army and the US Asiatic Fleet busied themselves keeping other powers out of their territory. Of course, what kept the AFP army-centred was the fact that another forebear of the AFP, the Commonwealth-era Philippine Army was built by a former US Army Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur, who found building navies and airforces costly himself. Of course post war, the JUSMAG wanted the AFP merely to keep the Huk's/NPA's/MNLF's asses out of Subic and Clark and to prevent the RP from becoming another Cuba or Iran. Besides the 3rd Airforce in Clark and the 7th Fleet in Subic, everyone even Manila thought, were enough to keep the Soviets and ChiComs out of the region.

Even with the Cold War over and the bases gone, the US, some sectors claim, wants to keep maintain its influence in the region with a Nuclear South Asia, a potentially aggressive North Korea and the Chinese Juggernaut. To do so, it's bet would be to keep a country with strong US ties militarily weak, or so they claim, so that it gives the US a foot in the door to maintain a military presence to prop up that nation.

Of course, other sectors believe that the reson the government would rather keep the AFP a COIN force is that it is easy to profit from a COIN war than to remain in a posture of external defense. Procuring articles like guided missiles or destroyers require airtight procedures and negotiations involving governments and huge corporations like Lockheed Martin and EADS. They offer no room for shady deals and kickbacks and are open to greater scrutiny here and abroad. COIN campaigns require procurements from much smaller contractors for articles like rifles, ammo and even BDAs and boots. Since it is a "wartime" situation, there are a lot of ad hoc deals taking place to meet immediate needs and practices like "conversion" are common place. This environment offers negligible transparency and a huge leeway for corruption at the behest of the guys doing the fighting. It would also be easy for many officers to keep their jobs and move up in a time of war rather than in a small "peacetime" army.
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City Hunter
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I'm trying to find a better link to the Defense Dept., House of Rep. committee handling this issue and even a good access to GMA (the best I could find is a said kiddie e-mail to her and text messaging).

Besides Jinggoy and Loi Estrada, maybe we could work on Sen. Santiago who has a brother who is a former PAF official and Sen. Biazon who still has support for the AFP boys. Maybe even the environmental and educational advocates if we can factor better into the equation the dual use of these military equipment. I'm not inclined to ask Enrile for support as his promises are more of a disappointment than a joy.
Command is about authority, about appointment to a position. Effective leadership is different. It must be learned and practiced in order for it to rise to the level of art. You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment but you cannot lead without it; and without leadership, command is a hollow experience. .. a vacuum often filled with mistrust and ignorance.

Gen. Eric K. Shinseki
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GKB02
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dammit one of my friend has a contact # of FG mig arroyo, but that guy knows no nothing :headbang:
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City Hunter
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Sir Tora^2, there are reports that the Malaysians may subscribe to that new anti-cruise missile missile that can be configured for upgraded MiG-29s. I'm hoping with access to the Novi Avion and MiG-29 tech we can integrate East Bloc systems and weapons too since these might be equal in performance yet much cheaper.

Still, even if our officials want to focus on the "war against terror" for the meantime it would still be a sufficient leverage to get the Cali, Defiant and Hummingbird back to production (well, licensed production for the Hummingbird).
Command is about authority, about appointment to a position. Effective leadership is different. It must be learned and practiced in order for it to rise to the level of art. You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment but you cannot lead without it; and without leadership, command is a hollow experience. .. a vacuum often filled with mistrust and ignorance.

Gen. Eric K. Shinseki
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