By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
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| Chilean Navy Sa'ar 4-class fast-attack craft Angamos and Casma perform tactical maneuvering exercises in the Strait Of Magellan |
Can you still remember my column about an Archbishop who agreed with the Chief of Police (CoP) of a City who told him that the payolas from illegal number game jueteng were necessary for the police operation against the bad guys?
Two months after the respective shares of the CoPs in Region 1 had been cut from the management of Meridian Jai-Alai (successor of Jueteng ), an intelligence operative of the police in a town in Pangasinan told me that police operation reeled in their fights against criminals.
“Mantakin niyo naman may hinuli kaming babae na may kasong non-bailable dito, pero kailangan naming i-present sa judge sa La Union dahil doon nanggaling ang warrant of arrest. Wala kaming pang gas para ibiyahi siya doon,” he lamented.
What he and fellow police did was to ask the husband of the woman if they could hitch a ride on the woman’s car going on the other province.
“Ayaw sana namin sumakay kasi baka makita kami ng judge mapapagalitan kami, pero wala kaming magawa kasi wala ng budget si hepe”
He reminisced the time when payolas from gambling were allowed by the higher command and they have more elbow rooms to chase, arrest, and lock the malefactors.
“Now we contented ourselves for the P200 a day gasoline allowance for our patrol car”.
He cited one of the top wanted men who killed a man in the town whom their intelligence operative found to be hiding in a province near Manila. He said they need around P5 thousand for their vehicle's gas, tool gate fees, meals, and others so they can serve the warrant of arrest to the suspect and bring him back in Pangasinan.
“Ang ginawa namin kina-usap namin ang missis ng victim. Mabuti naman nagbigay ng P5000. Nakakahiya nga pero kulang na kulang ang operation fund namin”.
He cited another instance that a pusher in the town was being protected by two police men from the nearby city and in their town.
“Ang ginawa ko kina-usap ko ang mga taga Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) para hindi ako mapag-initan ng mga kabaro ko. Pina-xerox namin ang P500 pesos then pina-blotter para magamit namin ang tunay na pera sa buy-bust”.
He said the pusher was very suspicious when his poseur-buyer, a civilian who even brought his wife, fished out the P500 bill and offered to buy a shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
The pusher told the duo that he could not sell them because he just seen their faces for the first time.
When the poseur-buyer went to their location just meters away to tell them the pusher would not acquiesced, he said he felt embarrassed with the six PDEA operatives who accompanied him because of his tip to them.
“Ginawa ko pina-inum ko sila ng worth P1,500 na beer, tapos nagbigay pa ako ng P500 for their vehicle’s gas”.
When he told his CoP that he spent P2000 of his personal money, the former, apologetic, gave him P1000 to mitigate his expenses.
“Pasensiya bata, wala tayong pera sa laro (Meridiane) ngayon”.
He said many policemen all over the region shelled out now their own money to buy their meal.
“Gone are the days when cops have free chow complement of those who manage the gambling operation”.
With these pathetic situations among the police, the government should spike the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses or famously known as MOOE of the police so they should not stooped on this level.
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Big and expensive ships do not mean they could be sure winner in the theater of warfare. The Philippine government has been appropriating and mulling billions of pesos to buy frigates and destroyers made in other countries to contain the growing threat of Mainland China in our territories in the South China Sea.
But look what I got here, in the book “War in the Fourth Dimension: U.S Electronic Warfare, from the Vietnam War to the Present “ that talks about air and naval jamming that could neutralize the enemies’ radar, author Dr. Alfred Price talks about a smaller Soviet –era made the lethal Komar (mosquito) patrol boat supplied by the Ivans to Egypt in their proxy war against U.S backed Israel in the late of 1960s.
Here are the excerpts:
“On the afternoon of October 21, 1967 the Egyptian Navy delivered a message that shook navies around the world. That day Soviet-supplied Komar patrol boats, sitting in the harbor at Port Said, launched three SSN-N-2 Styx active homing missiles at the Israeli destroyer Eilat patrolling off the coast. Fired from a range of about 15 miles, all three missiles scored hits on the Eilat and she sank with heavy loss of life. For the first time, guided missiles launched from warships had caused the destruction of one of their kind”.
It discussed there that since the appearance of the 70-ton Komar missile patrol boat it had been a naval curiosity. It had a maximum speed of around 40 knots in calm seas and the two Styx missiles, credited with a maximum range of 23 miles, sat in canisters mounted on the after deck. A Square Tie surveillance radar provided target acquisition. Once launched on the target’s azimuth, the mssile’s active radar homing system picked up the target and guided the Styx to impact.
“Yet it could be a nasty opponent. It was a small and hard to find, and as nimble and hard to hit, as the traditional PT boat. It could launch missiles from beyond the range of the guns of a much larger warship. These boats were cheap to build, they employed relatively simple technology and crews did not acquire long training to become effective,” according to Dr. Price
