The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
under the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte administration was on the verge of full
speed modernization buy acquiring longed sought military materials, that was
the planned until the COVID-19 pandemic pushed all of it in the pipe line.
Budgets were realigned to governments other
immediate projects with respect to its response to the pandemic being
experienced by the country.
And with the brewing tension in the West
Philippine Sea (WPS) the Chinese are making every claimant be on their toes so
to speak with respect to protecting their respective territories with the
available resources they have.
 |
| Top, illustration of P15 billion new Senate building; middle, our ‘installation’ at Ayungin Shoal (photo credit to owner) |
With the budgets allocated for the acquisition
of modern equipment realigned to other government projects, available resources
to proceed with the acquisition is needed.
Thus one is tricky, as eloquently explained
by Tiglao, if only Congress would allow it…
For purposes of public knowledge and transparency, below is the full quote of the article:
Use P15B for new Senate building to defend PH sovereignty
IT is so hypocritical for senators like Panfilo
Lacson, Risa Hontiveros and Franklin Drilon to be flag-waving hysterically over
the Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef incident and condemning the Duterte government
for, as the former put it, “resorting to acquiescence bordering on implied
derogation of our sovereignty.”
If they just bother to study the territorial
disputes in the South China Sea – and I would gladly send them the internet
links to my two dozen columns on this – they would realize the following two
realities.
First, the occupation of features in the Spratly archipelago by three
countries and Taiwan is a fait accompli. These are:
·
Those occupied by China, seven since 1988 plus
Scarborough Shoal that President Aquino 3rd lost to China in 2012 because of
his and his foreign secretary Albert del Rosario’s colossal bungling;
·
Those occupied by China, seven since 1988 plus
Scarborough Shoal that President Aquino 3rd lost to China in 2012 because of
his and his foreign secretary Albert del Rosario’s colossal bungling;
·
Those occupied by China, seven since 1988 plus
Scarborough Shoal that President Aquino 3rd lost to China in 2012 because of
his and his foreign secretary Albert del Rosario’s colossal bungling;
·
Those occupied by China, seven since 1988 plus
Scarborough Shoal that President Aquino 3rd lost to China in 2012 because of his
and his foreign secretary Albert del Rosario’s colossal bungling;
·
Those occupied by China, seven since 1988 plus
Scarborough Shoal that President Aquino 3rd lost to China in 2012 because of
his and his foreign secretary Albert del Rosario’s colossal bungling;
The arbitration suit, for which the Aquino
government spent P1 billion, didn’t resolve this dispute. It even turned
the Spratlys into a tinderbox as it provoked China to build artificial islands,
and US warships have and will be sailing near these islands for their so-called
“freedom of navigation” operations.
No court can resolve sovereignty disputes. A mutual
agreement by claimant countries to ask a third party to decide which has the
legitimate claim won’t ever happen. Live with that reality.
Second. the only thing we can do about this disputes and strengthen our
sovereignty in the area , as all other claimants except us have done, is
to develop the features we occupy, especially the four islands, into modern installations,
complete with ports, airports, communication equipment, and housing both for
civilians and soldiers. It is pathetic for us to beg the mighty US military to
defend our sovereignty. They never will.
Billion pesos
The Israelis invented a new term for this old
tactic in territorial disputes: “Establishing facts on the ground,” as they did
when they built Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip that they grabbed after
defeating the Arabs in the Six-Day War of 1976, to make it almost impossible
for Egypt and Syria to reclaim them.
While we spent a billion pesos for the expensive
American lawyers’ fees and those for the five-man panel in the totally useless arbitration
suit against China filed in 2013, the Chinese and the Vietnamese used their
money to improve the features they occupied. From having zero dry land before
the arbitration, China by reclaiming land from the sea now has 1,300 hectares.
In our case, our dry land of about 50 hectares is even being reduced, as
the ocean eats up the ends of the airstrip on Pag-Asa Island.
With these two realities staring us in the face,
our most important policy to address the South China Sea dispute is to develop
the six islands and four reefs we have occupied in the Spratlys since the
1970s, at least on the scale the Vietnamese have done for their islands.
It is a tragedy, and a cause for national shame
that one justification for the 1995 sale of the 240-hectare Fort Bonifacio for
P6 billion to the Indonesian Salim group (which subsequently sold it to the
Ayalas in 2002) was to raise funds to build facilities in our four islands in
the Spratlys.
Contractors
This did not happen. One source claimed that the
funds for our islands in the KIG were pocketed by generals and contractors.
“Those places are too far to inspect anyway. A contractor would report that
this combination facility was built there; a general would confirm it was. What
COA auditor dared inspect it?”
President Ramos told reporters in mid-2000 that the
question where the P6 billion is should be directed at his successor Joseph
Estrada. By January 2001, Estrada was ousted, with the core group of plotters
known to be Ramos’ former officials.
The “installation” Estrada put up in the Spratlys
in 1999 was a grounded, rusted World War 2 landing ship in Ayungin Shoal,
where a platoon of marines are stationed, to maintain our sovereign claims in
that area. China and Vietnam are laughing at us, while US propagandists use
that pathetic image to hail us as a heroic David fighting the Goliath.
But we don’t have the billions of pesos needed to
develop our KIG islands as China and Vietnam have done. Really?
But the Senate could afford Senator Lacson’s
project to allocate P5 billion in funds for a new hi-tech, luxurious four-story
Senate building at Bonifacio Global City, which would eventually cost P15
billion when furniture, fixtures, and other finishing costs are
included? The project broke ground in 2019 and had its first concrete
pouring in February last year. No problem with funds; it is scheduled to be
finished this year. We are the only country in the world to be undertaking
such a huge $200 million project to build luxury offices for 24 super-egos, at
a time when we are in a recession because of the pandemic.
That is why I said the three senators are hypocritical
when they complain that Duterte isn’t doing anything to protect our
sovereignty. If they are so concerned about our sovereignty in the KIG, these
three senators should spearhead a move to put on hold the construction of that
monument to their super-segos, and work out some way to reallocate the P15
funds for it to instead to develop our facilities in that disputed area.
NPA monument
Congress can also allocate P500 million for a
building dubbed as a memorial to human rights victims during martial law, but
which – as I will prove in subsequent columns – is a monument to members of the
Communist Party and New People’s Army killed in their failed revolutionary war.
Our defense establishment has become so stupid to
the point of being ridiculous. Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana has
been jumping up and down protesting the presence of Chinese fishing vessels at
Julian Felipe, claiming they are “maritime militias” entirely on the say-so of
US intelligence operatives.
For chrissake, the Union Bank where that reef
is at, has been occupied since 1988 by the Chinese and the Vietnamese.
Yet Lorenzana shouts, “we will not give an inch of our territory to China.”
China doesn’t need to raise a finger grab our
“territory” in the KIG. It is to the sea to which we will be giving up our
territory.
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