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| PAF Capt Giemel Espino is TOYM awardee for 2007 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 7 2007, 05:24 PM (876 Views) | |
| israeli | Dec 7 2007, 05:24 PM Post #1 |
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Jaycees name TOYM awardees By Jerome Aning Inquirer Last updated 03:57pm (Mla time) 12/07/2007 MANILA -- Two Metro Manila mayors lead seven distinguished young Filipinos who made it to the final cut of this year's JCI Philippines' search for The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM). Mayors Joseph Victor Ejercito of San Juan City and Navotas Mayor Tobias Reynald Tiangco are the awardees in the government/public service and community service categories, respectively. The other awardees announced by the Jaycees at a press conference in Quezon City Friday afternoon are Kara Patria David for broadcast journalism; Philippine Air Force Captain Giemel Espino for military service; Chikka Asia Inc. founder and chief executive officer Dennis Mendiola for business leadership; National Disaster Coordinating Council deputy administrator Anthony Rolando Golez Jr. for disaster management; and Mary Mother of Poor founder Fr. Fernando Suarez for religious service. The formal awards ceremony will be held at Malacañang Palace on December 10, with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as guest of honor. The TOYM award is recognized as one of the country's most prestigious recognition for young men and women whose selfless dedication to their field resulted in significant contributions to the country and the Filipinos. Chief Justice Reynato Puno is this year's chair of the board of judges. |
| "To secure peace is to prepare for war." - Carl Von Clausewitz | |
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| saver111 | Jun 5 2009, 09:42 PM Post #2 |
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PDFF Moderator
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In taking risks, air force captain inspires By Maria Althea Teves, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 06/05/2009 3:29 PM When he was a child, Giemel Espino was attached to stuffed toys. So when his mother left him when he was seven years old, he found comfort in his cuddly company and in watching the movie E.T. Now an Air Force captain, Espino has a collection 500 stuffed toys. His favorite stuffed character E.T. reminds him of the inspiration that assuaged his lonely heart as a child. Inspiring others is what Espino dreams of doing for the rest of his life. Inventor Espino, 39, also liked to invent gadgets and games. “As a child, I had a wild imagination… Inventing was my outlet,” he said. He said inventing kept his mind off the fact that his mother left their family and that his father, who was busy with business and had other families, neglected him. “I know there are people worse off than I was. I wanted to show everyone something new so they could say in their heads, ‘Hey that is possible, he made it possible,’” Espino said. He said that doing something new, doing something different, inspires people. He made many gadgets like a device that purportedly reads minds, a system to memorize Bible verses and a videoke casino—all of which were just for personal use but he now plans to market. Making the impossible possible His love for making the impossible possible is what keeps Espino from leaving his risky work as the head of the rainmaking squadron and as non-combatant pilot of the Philippine Air Force (PAF). Flying the 49-year-old Cessna LC 201 to disperse salt in clouds is a dangerous job, but trying to penetrate sponge-thick clouds is even more dangerous. The plane is “very old” and not designed to go into clouds, he said. “When I am operating the aircraft and going through clouds, it is like riding a roller coaster with my eyes closed. If I look out the window, I would end up having vertigo,” he said. Espino said that the uniqueness of his work and the risks that it entails may be the reason why he has won leadership awards and was nominated as a recipient of the Gawad Geny Lopez Bayaning Pilipino award. Gawad Geny Lopez is the annual search by the Lopez group of companies for Filipino leaders who help their communities and inspire love of country. Not afraid of danger The rainmaking program of the PAF has been going on for 50 years. “It is riskier now” because of the old equipment they use, Espino said. He recalls one near-death experience when he and his co-pilot were flying over the then-dry CASECNA watershed, maneuvering out of a cloud when it started to rain—a normal occurrence—but there were accompanying lightning bolts that struck to the left and right of the plane. He tried his hardest to fly out of the cloud, which was getting thicker by the minute. “It felt like getting trapped in a middle of a sponge,” he said. The turbulence aggravated the situation but they managed to get out, and just as they were able to clear the 1000 ft-thick cloud, they almost slammed into a mountain. Thankfully the engine, which usually stalls when it could not handle a cloud, did not fail. He said pilots are taught not to go into the clouds. “But my work entails doing the very opposite, the one thing that must not be done. But I get it done,” he said. Sticking it out He ended up in this job because the PAF needed a pilot for rainmaking. He was thought to be qualified because he was an instructor for the Air Force Weather Group. “I shouted profanities when I found out what a rain maker is supposed to do. The title sounded very easy,” he said. But Espino stayed on. There are only two others with him in the rainmaking squadron – a co-pilot and a crew member who “impregnates” the clouds with salt to induce condensation. He laments that government equipment they use for rainmaking is of very low quality. To create a big storm with heavy rain, a bigger plane would be needed to ensure the safety of the team. But that is not available. Clouds ahead Espino said that the PAF is currently studying a rain suppression program in which rain is made to fall over one area to spare another. To do this they inject salt into a cloud before it reaches a certain area so that rain would fall over another place and keep that area dry. He said this was done during the Miss Universe pageant in 1974. While not flying among the clouds, Espino is doing various environment researches for his post-graduate course in urban and regional planning at the University of the Philippines. He is looking at adapting the rain making methods in Thailand where they make clouds instead of waiting for them to form naturally. He conducted studies in Thailand in 2008 and has proposed a new type of aircraft for the PAF rain making squadron for this purpose. Another environment study he is conducting concerns a “Sustainable City Concept,” wherein plants and colors placed in strategic locations in a city could help reduce heat and help in energy consumption. Espino hopes that he will inspire Filipinos with the kind of work that he does. “New concepts and ideas are not welcomed by those who lack imagination. But to prove that things could be done is hopefully inspiring not only to those who have dreams but to those who did not even think it is possible,” said the pilot who once lacked inspiration but now overflows with it. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/features/06/05/...aptain-inspires
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Justice for Daniel Lorenz Jacinto HELP END PIRACY NOW!: http://www.itfseafarers.org/petition.cfm | |
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| truegrit | Jun 6 2009, 08:28 AM Post #3 |
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I was a kid back then when I read an AirForce Article about the PAF RainMaking Squadron. This is during the Marcos Administration and saw a pic that looks like a PIPER CUB Aircraft which they used. Is that the same aircraft use by Captain Espino too? If that is so then, its very OLD and even outlived the AC47 gunships. |
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8:49 AM Jul 11