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| The Case for a Philippine Naval Academy; Isn't it high time we have one? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 29 2006, 07:23 PM (3,955 Views) | |
| Tony Moon | May 29 2006, 07:23 PM Post #1 |
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Not too long ago I found out that a Rep. Antonio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur proposed House Bill 4604 calling for the establishment of a "Philippine Naval Academy" (see Manila Standard Today, Online- September 19 2005; under political stories). Among the points cited by Cerilles are: 1) The Philippines is an archipelagic nation of 7100 islands 2) There already exists a Philippine Merchant Marine Academy with facilities and training staff. BUT its graduates are not required to serve in the military although its midshipmen enjoy what practically amounts to a government scholarship. In fact, very few opt to serve with the navy or coast guard. Needless to say, nothing came of this proposal as far as I am able to know. Very common arguments against the establishment of a "PNA" are among others: 1) lack of funds? 2) priority should be the procurement of more up to date ships and weapons? But then again, if it's just a matter of upgrading an exisiting institution into a naval officer's school then why should "lack of funds" be such a compelling reason not to have it? When it comes to the formation a viable naval service complete with its own naval traditions and pride in the service, isn't a Naval Academy the best way of addressing this lack? Afterall, even a old WW2 ex-U.S. Navy rust bucket of a ship still needs excellent engineering and seamanship in order to operate properly. Based on the current anti-insurgency and anti-smuggling operational roles commonly encountered by the navy, would a new SS or SA missile, or aircraft carrier be really a priority over the formation of a naval academy? And of course there are Filipino Annapolis graduates, but they are so few and rarely stay with the service after their contract with the Philippine government is over. Another thing is, it isn't as if the Philippines was always such an impoverished country. Why couldn't we have had a "PNA" back in the 50's or 60's? I'm open for a frank discussion on this matter, among the things I'd like to know are other possible angles such as: a) would there perhaps be some opposition from the PMA and alumni if there will be another school handling the training of regular officers for the Philippine Navy and Marines? b) can a healthy inter-service rivalry work in the Philippine military?  |
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| MSantor | May 29 2006, 10:08 PM Post #2 |
 
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Tony. Stop dreaming and look around. The RP doesn't need a Naval Academy. How can the RP boast a naval academy when Philippine Navy ships can't even compete with major foreign warships- the PN doesn't even have anti-shipping missiles like Exocets or Harpoons for Pete's sake! The AFP can fill its current needs from both the PMA as well as the PMMA (merchant marine) as well as Naval ROTC programs at civilian colleges all over the country. You shouldn't think that the RP should copy the United States just because they have the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Seperate service academies are the priviliege of well-established, well-funded militaries who can better manage their financial resources and have the adequate budget provided to them by their governments. A good suggestion, but made at the wrong time. Perhaps when the PN has more modern, missile-equipped, ships, and even submarines- then we can look at this suggestion again.
BTW, you forgot Filipino citizen graduates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. Retired Philippine Navy Admiral Espaldon is a graduate of that school. http://www.usmma.edu/ I assume there are also RP graduates of the US Coast Guard Academy as well, since I remember seeing a USCGA cadet uniform displayed at the AFP Museum in Camp Aguinaldo. http://www.uscga.edu/ Therefore, PN grads of foreign naval schools aren't as few as you think just because not all come from Annapolis. |
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"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." - Henry Ford "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill "If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking"- Gen. George S. Patton | |
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| saver111 | May 30 2006, 02:18 PM Post #3 |
PDFF Moderator
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some related discussions: http://pdff.sytes.net/index.php?showtopic=1389 |
 Justice for Daniel Lorenz Jacinto HELP END PIRACY NOW!: http://www.itfseafarers.org/petition.cfm | |
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| Tony Moon | May 30 2006, 04:24 PM Post #4 |
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MSantor. Well yeah, but who said anything about "competing" with other foreign warships? The current situation as it is has already conceeded Philippine territorial waters to virtuall every foreign warship that wants to come in and out with almost absolute impunity. Since we don't want nor can we fight a conventional naval war with just about any neighboring country. Why would a multi-million peso missile system which rapidly becomes obsolete in five or ten years or a couple of additional major surface units be the priority? We are talking here of fighting and winning the insurgency war and the anti-smuggling war with the ships we've already got, perhaps with better and more efficient propulsion systems, adequate ammunition, and better manned by expertly trained crews lead by professionaly trained and dedicated naval officers.
But you see, I HAVE been looking around. The problem is this current set up is WASTEFUL, needlessly wasteful. Imagine a PMA cadet for instance undergoes a four year scholarship which trains him to be an army officer. If that guy ends up with the navy, precisely how much of his being a PMA cadet has prepared him to run a ship? 50%?...25%?...5%? Well heck no, he can lead a platoon into battle but knows squat about running even a small tugboat. What usually happens is the guy will have to undergo additonal training (meaning additional expenses) just to be able to know the basics of seamanship. WHERE IS THE SAVINGS HERE?
Espaldon is decades ago, we don't send anyone to Kings Point anymore. When was the last time an Annapolis graduate or U.S. Coast Guard Academy guy ever held on to reach flag officer rank? And PMMA? Do you know that 90% of its graduates go to work with foreign shipping companies immediately upon graduation? I'm not even sure the Philippines has a merchant marine to merit the existence of a PMMA, but I'm pretty sure we do have a navy which does have a fleet of ships regardless of antiquity.
There is a reason why something is diplayed in a museum my friend, either because they are such a rarity or because they may be virtually extinct.
Well, you are probably right about that.....not so much because we shouldn't copy the U.S. but more because we simply can't manage our financial resources any better, whether we have the money to mismanage or not. |
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| cindy | May 30 2006, 04:55 PM Post #5 |
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if we have a naval academy, what ships will we assign the future ensigns to? |
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| MSantor | May 30 2006, 06:18 PM Post #6 |
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Tony, The purpose of a navy is first and foremost, to GUARD A NATION'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER ITS TERRITORIAL WATERS. That's why the PN's priority should be to get SSM-armed OPVs pronto! Its purpose is not mainly to be the Army's ferry service in this perennial insurgency, though the PN LSTs have been employed as such. As for the Marine Corps, their primary purpose had always been to guard navy ports and to establish beachheads which could have been later developed into safe anchorages for the navy, aside from being part of a further push inland for the Marines. That's why in the US, as in the PN, the Marines fall under the "Dept. of the Navy" though US Leathernecks enjoy the perks of shipboard life when they have sea duty, but treat sailors like fags. Other nations with festering insurgencies such as Thailand (Narithiwat province) and Indonesia (Banda Aceh seperatists) still have decent, SSM-equipped navies in spite of the COIN problem. Another more comparable example from Latin America is Colombia, whose frigates still have SSMs in spite of their COIN focus against insurgent groups such as FARC. Thus, an insurgency is NO EXCUSE to let down on external security.
Also, BTW, the RP does have sizeable merchant fleet, and I don't just mean the inter-island ro-ro ferries. 413 Ships to be exact, according to the CIA world factbook (scroll down to "Transportation") when you check the link) http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbo...s/rp.html#Trans
BTW, the PMA is not the only tri-service military academy in the world. You don't need to have a seperate service academy to produce capable officers for different services. Take for example, the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario ("Royal", since Canada is still technically part of the British Commonwealth in spite of independence), from which graduating cadets can choose any service. Cadets who choose to become naval officers in Canada's Maritime Command (no longer called the Royal Canadian Navy), are just as capable as those who choose an "Army career" in Land Forces Command. RMC-Kingston has produced capable non-army officers throughout history- including World War One Royal Flying Corps ace and RMC alumni Billy Bishop, who shot down about 80 Imperial German planes during World War One. This is just one example. The fact that you assume that PMA naval grads can lead a platoon in ground combat means you hold some misconceptions about the PMA, since cadets who choose the naval path are given adequate exposure to naval life through the naval science courses they take. Comparably, in the US Naval Academy, they spend the summers exposing the junior year cadets to a cruise aboard warship or possibly shadowing a USMC Lieutenant on a beach landing exercise, depending on which track they chose. It would only make sense the PMA must have some sort of shipboard excursions for the naval option cadets during their summer months or even weekend excursions to a naval base away from Baguio during the regular semesters. I await your reply. |
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"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." - Henry Ford "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill "If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking"- Gen. George S. Patton | |
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| Tony Moon | May 31 2006, 02:47 PM Post #7 |
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MSantor, O.K., so you've just just stated the textbook and "politically correct" role of a navy. For some other countries, a navy's purpose is for POWER PROJECTION regardless of whether they'll admit it or not. The most valid reason why state of the art shipborne missiles and guided missile cruisers can be worth the investment for a "third world" naval force is DETERRENCE, meaning to say....there is the presence of a known hostile external threat by a hostile foreign rival for regional power and influence. This actually boils down to a war of how deep the pockets of the belligerents are, so who blinks first looses. In short, the hope is such weapons and capabilities will never have to be actually used. One sees to it that enough propaganda of how wonderful it works and how so much one has of it at their disposal in wartime will be enough to deter potential enemy adventurism. A way to lower the spiraling of costs to sustain such capabilities is to develop our own arms and ship building industry for export (like Pakistan or India). But mind you, modern weapons systems are often developed with certain specific naval or military "doctrines" that go with it. How can we even hope to develop naval weapons systems or hulls if we don't have any naval doctrinaire experience? How can we sell naval missiles and ships if we don't even have a naval tradition of excellence or even a naval academy? I'm sure the leftists in government will not want the Philippines to be something like an "arsenal" exporting "death". They will do their very best to see to it that we will never have a miltary industrial complex. Philippine foreign policy has never even begun to understand such power play, let alone indulge into such things. The awful truth is that we are a nation of appeasers, and perhaps always will be. Still, you are not far off the reality. You see when it comes to "external threats", the AFP role is exactly that of a security guard for an installation. A security guard's primary role is NOT the engage a well armed and determined break-in. A guard should be able to sense the presence of intruders, hide if there are many; and then ring in the the professionals (eg. police). Or if engagement is unavoidalble, a guard is supposed to hold on or live long enough to call in the police. In my analogy, we prefer that "professional police" to mean the the whole fury and might of a U.S. carrier battle group with its amphibious component of U.S. Marines steaming off to our rescue! Where the Philippine Navy is supposed to fit in this role, I do not know? I'm merely stating an unspoken general feeling of acceptance for such a scenario by the rather "hopeful" Philippine government although there is no such formal treaty with the U.S. to that effect. So the only thing we can really do (and MUST do NOW) for the benefit of the AFP as a whole is to improve the training and morale of our officers and men just enough to successfully combat internal threats more efficiently. Dated ships and weapons can still be good commie or jihadist killing machines if properly handled by well trained and highly motivated men.
But fact remains, few if any PMMA graduates bother to consider working in one of these 413 "ships". In any case, there are tens of thousands of tuition paying maritime students in any one of the hundred or so odd private maritime schools all over the Philippines. Why should government continue to assume a responsibility already more than adequately answered by the private sector? If for sentimental reasons the PMMA should never go defunct, it should progress into a Philippine Naval Academy or die a natural death.
By whatever name they choose to call their naval assets for political reasons or what not, They still function as navies. The Japanese for instance also call their navy the "Maritime Self Defense Force" and no longer the Japanese Imperial Navy for obvious reasons. It just so happened that the ruling "Liberals" in Canada during the late 90's up till recently had striven hard to make Canada a "socialist" state in keeping with it's 1960's reputation as a "hippie haven" for U.S. draft dogers. Nevertheless young Canadians still have sizeable access to "proper" naval officer's schooling at the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth. |
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| Tony Moon | May 31 2006, 03:11 PM Post #8 |
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Cindy, Oh I suppose the same ships the PN has now, if the current officers and crew have managed to keep them going long enough for the new boys and girls to use them. I'm not saying new weapons and ships are unimportant, But if we simply can't have them right now we might as well improve the professionalism and "fighting spirit" of the men who will have to serve in them in order to make up for the inferiority in equipment....something like an institutionalized Filipino form of naval bushido.
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| MSantor | May 31 2006, 04:07 PM Post #9 |
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I hope for the sake of everyone on this board that the RP will NOT always be a nation of appeasers. Sometimes one must take a stand in a situation where one's very livelihood is threatened. Even if that means having the BRP Artemio Ricarte and her sisters braving a PLA SSM barrage in order to close to gun range with Chinese Sorennemy Class Destroyer (a highly unlikely scenario while will see the PN Corvettes sunk), one must take a stand. Thus, having a decent SSM-equipped navy is still a must! And its acquisition should be a priority, regardless of how the PN trains its officers. When I mean an SSM equipped navy, it doesn't even have to be Oliver Hazard Class Frigates, but it can even be smaller corvettes or even FPBs as long as the firepower is enough to take on any the possible adversaries in the region, from the Malaysian Kasturi class Frigates to the small PLA Hainan FPBs which the PN is more likely to encounter.
A lot of good that Bushido did for the Imperial Japanese Navy towards the end of their war, sacrificing their obselete planes and undertrained pilots in kamikaze runs on US warships in 1945- all a waste coz it didn't even stop Admiral Halsey and Spruance's Carrier armadas from advancing upon the Japanese homeland. By the same reasoning, an obselete Philippine Navy corvette, no matter how well-oiled or well-maintained it is by an elite crew, is useless against a missile Frigate that can kill the corvette from miles away with an Exocet or Sunburn missile. Therefore, as I said before, having a Philippine Naval Academy is just poor timing at this point. And almost as useless a gesture as having a Philippine Air Force Academy when there's no multi-role fighters to for the cadets to later fly! Tony, BTW, why are you so fixated on having a PNA? Dont' you think NROTC programs at civilian colleges at the nation, besides the trickle who come from PMA and PMMA, will be enough? We don't need another academy clique that will further divide the officer corps among the services between ring knockers, and ROTCers/OCSers. |
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"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." - Henry Ford "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill "If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking"- Gen. George S. Patton | |
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| Tony Moon | May 31 2006, 08:19 PM Post #10 |
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MSantor, Yes I agree, but only if we have an integrated system such as a local defense technology industry to help defray the costs by way of arms exports. But you know now what has to happen within the government first, right?
In case the of the an Air Force Academy, I fully concur with your views. Just to illustrate how superflouous the U.S. A. F. Academy is, a new graduate cannot yet even be ready to fly on combat missions. He/ she still has to go to a flying school and stack up more flying hours and train with jets or other aircraft and graduate from that flying school and so forth. The PAF really needs aircraft! Forget the MRCA concept! Such was proven to be a failure with the actual performance of the european Tornado jet in combat, notice they didn't repeat that mistake with the new eurofighter. What the Philippine Air Force can really use are those improved Harrier VSTOL jets which the U.S. Marines use today, and what the Spanish Air Force calls the "Matador". COIN aircraft isn't even that much as big a priroity. You just know when something is a proven success when the aircaft's basic configuration and role has remained unchanged for many years. The Harrier is still the best and only one of it's type in the world. The U.S Air Force Academy was born out of the the ministrations of the U.S. Army Air Corps maveric named Gen. Billy Mitchell simply to provide a venue for a thoroughly "air-minded" cadre of military officers whose purpose is to show that an airforce deserves to be a separate arm in itself with a strategic role of its own and not just an "adjunct" to army or navy strategic requirements. This was rejected by the navy and thus the U.S. still has naval aviators and navair squadrons whose primary mission remains to protect the surface fleet. But the Naval Academy? ...poor timing?....maybe, but even as near useless?..NO WAY!
Alam mo, the all important thing is VENUE. After all, others can probably lodge the same arguments against continuing to support a Philippine Military Academy. Why not just improve the ROTC or Army OCS? Bakit pa someone as young as a high school grad or college level youth be expected to fully comprehend what it means to sign a scholarship contract with the military? Isn't it better to just train a civilian college graduate who is at the prime of his young adulthood and who has a more mature outlook?....All these and so many other questions. If the only consideration was to save money then siguro nga, pero we know better, right? Sometimes, you wonder what would have happened if the decision to establish the PMA wasn't done during the American commonwealth period. Knowing how narrow minded some of our local politicians can be.....we would still have a Philippine Constabulary Academy as the only dedicated four year government school for all branches of service. It would still be at the teacher's camp instead of at the Loakan. All I can say is that the PNA is "FOR THE GOOD OF THE SERVICE", the very same rational which makes the PMA valid. Now if we view the fortunes of our armed Forces as an entity which functions primarily in the interest of the officer corps then yes we should worry for the the unity of the officer corps first and foremost. Would that be so?
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