Next president decides if AFP Modernization v. China continues

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

After the hearing on the PNP Modernization Bill last November 26 at the swanky Sison Auditorium in Lingayen, Pangasinan,Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan and PMA ’76) introduced me to Congressman Romeo Acop (2nd District, Antipolo and PMA ’70) as a former personnel of the Tactics at the Philippine Military Academy in the late 1980s when he was one of the tactical officers there.

RAFALE. U.S$101 million apiece French made Dassault
Rafale multi-role jet.Photo Credit: Dassault Aviation

“Sir, what class are you?” I asked Acop, a lawyer.

“1970”

“Oh, your mistah (classmate) was Julius Javier (living legend and hero of the black panther commando the Scout Ranger). He just reacted last week on my blog I posted at Face Book on my article about former U.S General Colin Powel during his stint at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

“I’m still seeing Julius; we played golf together with my other “mistahs”.

After I narrated to him that I and my family lived at the RFC near the statue of “young boy” General Gregorio del Pilar when they were still firstie (graduating cadets) in the 1970,I asked Acop, a member of the Oversight Committee of Revised AFP Modernization Program, why it takes several years (2018 to 2022 of Horizon 2) for the AFP to buy a squadron or two squadrons of multiple jets like the U.S made $19 million apiece F-16 bloc C/D, Sweden made  U.S $ 70 million each Saab JAS 39 Gripen, or U.S$101 million apiece French made Dassault Rafale to buttress the Philippines’ defense of her  islands, and reefs at the West Philippines Sea (WPS).

“In case Congress deliberate and fund in 2017 the multi-role jets, funds will be available in 2018, order and delivery of the brand new jets will be on 2019 or 2020, baka ubos na ang isla natin sa WPS in case we keep procrastinating on buying them?"

He told me that the Revised AFP Modernization Act  (RAFPMA) or Republic Act 10349 already funded all the items needed by the AFP up to the end year 2028 of the Horrizon-3.

“The ball now lays on the executive department especially the new president whether he/she supports it, " he told me.

***

When  I asked him in case the tension at the WPS get out of control, why not Congress pass a special appropriation to buy  second hand F-16s or Israeli Kfirs, all multi-role fighters, especially the latter the Israelis offer us in a basement price.

“They were manufactured in the 1970s but their frames and platforms were spruced up to fly for thousands of hours not to mention the warranty given by the Israelis, their new avionics and munitions are at par with the F-16,” I declared.

GRIPEN MULTI-ROLE JET. Sweden made  U.S $ 70 million each
Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Photo Credit: pinterest.com

As what rhk111smilitaryandarmspage.wordpress.com wrote: ‘All Kfirs being sold now are taken from the mothballed stocks of the IAF (Israel Air Force), but are refurbished and upgraded with advanced avionics. The latest version in the market is the “Block 60″ armed with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, the EL/M-2052. IAI is selling this new version with a 40-year manufacturer’s guarantee for the low price of only USD 20 million each, which would be cheaper than the FA-50 Golden Eagles (priced at U.S $30 million apiece - MCO)”.

Acop said we should instead buy for brand new than procuring those French Mirage III/5 delta-winged inspired Kfir, whose technology the Jews stole from the French after the latter would not sell those hundreds of Mirage III Israeli ordered and paid before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

***

Here under was my Question and Answer with Congressman Sam Pagdilao (Baron, PMA ‘79) before I and Rep. Acop had a huddle:

MORTZ: May question is not on the PNP Modernization Bill but on the RAFPMA because you and other former military or police officials are members of the Oversight Committee of the military modernization.

Sir, nakita ko kasi sa Horizon-1 (2013 to 2017) 33 military items, dadalawa o tatatlo pa lang nabili ng government iyong fighter-trainer jets sa South Korea and Bell Helicopters sa Canada. Bakit marami ang hindi nabibili sa Horizon-1? Wala bang supurta ang Congress sa procurement?

F-16 C/D. $19 million apiece F-16 Bloc C/D.
Photo Credit: taiwantoday.tw

CONGRESSMAN PAGDILAO: Okay, we are also members of the AFP Modernization Oversight Committee. Tama ka diyan. Una, I observed hindi nabibili hindi nasusunod ng AFP iyong Time Line saka iyong pagbili ng dapat bibilhin according to different Time Lines o Horizons sa bill.

So, wala bang suporta ang Congress?

Cops awe kibitzers on helmet cam, other projects

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

POZORRUBIO – The chief of police (COP) here did not stop to amaze peace and order spectators about his series of innovations in fighting criminals.

HELMET CAM. Police Chief Inspector Ryan Manongdo and his
 aid, a camera- installed- helmet, in fighting criminals.

From the Project Bando, Papa Bear, LAMBAT, ESPADA, Sanib Pwersa, Pulis Nino, and R.A.Ks, Police Chief Inspector Ryan Manongdo is into Project Selfie (PS).

PS is where foot police patrollers wear a camera installed helmet to record activities in the areas of this first class town.

 “Sa tulong ng Project Selfie ng Pozurrobio police nakikita iyong actual na nangyayari sa isang situation. Agad din itong namo-monitor na gamit ang isang application sa cellphone,” the former math teacher turned police officer said.

Manongdo, an alumnus of the Philippine National Police Academy, said PS aims to support the ongoing Oplan Lambat-Sibat of the PNP through recording of various crime prevention activities. To achieve this, he said, the following are the objectives of “Selfie”:

”To record actual activities of police personnel during the operation, to protect the personnel from harassment, and to document important visual informations that have value”.

He cited that the camera did not only protect the police when they are on patrol or serving a search warrant or warrant of arrest on the fabricated counter-charges of the culprits but could capture the plate number of the vehicle they are pursuing, the face of the malefactor, and could be used in the coming Yuletide Season and the May 2016 election where crime spikes.

“Iyong police alam niyang nag vi-video siya so behave siya. The community alam din nila na they are being documented they also behave. So respect begets respect”.

Manongdo, a Special Action Force’s trained commando, was profusely thankful to the people and non-government organization (NGO) that keep supporting his laudable projects that they believe can be emulated not only by the police stations in the 44 towns and four cities’ Pangasinan but all the police forces all over the country.

The COP said one set of the helmet camera cost P6.500.

Cops Asked: Is it OK your superior throw you in jail?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I caught the middle of the consultation of the Committee on Public Order and Safety of the House of Representatives on the “PNP Modernization Bill” with hundreds of members of the Philippine National Police held last Thursday in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

2 Philippine cops tagged in ‘hulidap’ arrested, 7 others hunted PHOTO CREDIT DZRHNEWS.COM

Major concerns asked by Congressmen Romy Acop, Sam Pagdilao, and Pol Bataoil, who are not only retired police officials but alumni of the Philippine Military Academy, were the following: "

1)             If active members of the Philippine National Police wanted that their ranking titles be reverted to the then Philippines Constabulary (PC).

It means a Senior Inspector would be called as Captain, etc.

I asked the non officers who were mostly SP04 (Senior Police Officer-4) who were near my seat if they were amenable that a Police Officer 1 would be called “Constable” while an SP04 with red six stripes and a star in the middle will be called MSGT or Master Sergeant just like in the military.  Most of them did not like the idea. “It could not happen because the PNP was created as civilian in nature while those military ranks were created, well, for military purpose,” an SPO4 answered me.

“I thought you don’t want to trade off the SPO-4 or P01 rank because of the word “Officer” attached to it when in the real sense you are not officer like the Inspector or Superintendent (Lieutenant or Lt. Colonel in the military),’ I jocularly told him.

Shocked mailman, wife invited to presidential dinner

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When I was a kid growing inside the camp of the Philippine Military Academy I wondered why every Saturday or Sunday there were cadets that ate lunch and spent their afternoon at the houses of our military neighbours.

FOSTER SISTER. Getting acquainted, Inah Felice had chit-chat with the
new cadets moments after the foster parent pairing at the military academy.
PHOTO CREDIT: TRIPOD

“They are foster brothers,” a young pretty female neighbour, who became a general in the nurse corps, said to me on the graduating first class cadets.

Many of these cadets came from dirt poor existence in the provinces but catapulted themselves to the elite military school because of their intelligence especially in math in high school.

Some of them married the daughters (their foster sisters) of officers and non officers who stayed at the PMA’s quarters.

One of the cadets, just to stop the inquisitiveness and loquaciousness of a five-year old boy, carried me on his lap to stop my blabber when my lady cousin Darcy invited them inside our house so some of them, who were Ilonggos, could meet and exchange pleasantries with my father who hailed from Iloilo City.

“That was Julius Javier (PMA Class 1970 who came from Negros Occidental), he is the goat (the cadet who graduated last in his entire class),” my cousin whispered to me when Javier and classmates bid goodbye.

Q & A: Senatorial Bets Manny Pacquiao and Alma Moreno

After interviewing in the past former president Fidel V. Ramos, former Five-Time Speaker Jose de Venecia, ambassador from other country, 2016 presidential front runner Senator Grace Poe, 2016 vice presidential wannabes and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, and Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, Jr., I think these two interviews I had with two prominent political figures in the country would be my icing on the cake after I retire in the interesting world of the media in the Philippines to prepare myself in the likewise interesting catering business dahil wala palang masyadong kita dito sa media.

Interviewer Mortz C. Ortigoza (L), who sidelined as boxing anal-list, er,
analyst posterity poses with boxing icon and Congressman Manny
Pacquiao in his training camp in Baguio City. Ortigoza was probably
the only analyst in the Philippines who predicted  on TV and radio a
month of the over hyped Floyd Mayweather vs. Pacquiao that
the American would dominate the Filipino superman. You can read 
that analysis by clicking the link here Historical Photo versus Historical Puta

Here are senatorial candidate Manny Pacquiao, the epitome of patent and scandalous absences in the Philippine Congress and a shoo-in at the respectable pollsters Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, and bumbling actress Alma Moreno in a satirical Questions and Answers (Q & A) as they prepare for the 2016 senatorial run. Excerpts:

Q: Champ, ever since there is non-stop killing in your island Mindanao, how’s the peace and order situation there now?

PACQUIAO: Well, you know.... it is bad. Many fish like tuna, dorobo, tilapia, and hito but no order... very bad.

  Q: Totoo po ba Congressman Pacquiao sa isa ninyong madalang na attendance sa House, gusto daw ninyo mag pasa’ ng urgent resolution for the immediate arrest of John Doe at Jane Doe, bakit po?

P: Lagi ko kasi silang nadidinig na kasangkot sa maraming krimen. Minsan madidinig mo na lang sa radyo o TV na ang mga criminals na nahuhuli sa Manila, may isang lalaki at may isang babae na John Doe at Jane Doe na kasama na parang palos  na nakakatakas sa police dragnet. After one hour nasa Zamboanga na naman sila kasangkot ang tatlong pinangalanang Abu Sayaff at isang John Doe at Jane Doe na nambomba. Parang si Kumander Tootpick at Kumander Inday ito, may pagka aswang. Isang oras lang nasa Zamboangga na! May anting-anting ata itong mga hunghang, mas mabilis pa silang lumipad sa PAL o Cebu Pacific.

Q: Pati Anti-Fencing Law gusto ninyo daw buwagin, bakit?

P: Kasi iyong kapit bahay namin sa Saranggani hinuli ng pulis. Mi Prima Facie daw na bumili ng nakaw, ayon kinasuhan ng Anti-Fencing.

Bakit siya kakasuhan ng Anti Fencing? Hindi naman siya tutol sa pagpapader sa palipaligid ng mga kapitbahay niya. Saka hindi naman siya naglalaro ng fencing iyong eskrima ng payat na espada gaya doon sa pelikula ni Zorro. Ang alam noong kapitbahay namin na gamitin iyong espading iyong itak pamputol sa mga tubo doon sa amin at iyong ginamit na pang tuli kay Bobby na kapatid ko.

Q: Nadinig ko pati si Prima Facie gusto din daw ninyo ipahuli sa NBI?

P: Oo, kasi mapa –Manila man o mapa Cebu ako nadidinig ko na kinasuhan si niho at si niha dahil may Prima Facie. Foreigner siguro itong si Prima Facie, masyadong malakas, hindi nila  hinuhuli kahit na sinabi na ng uturidad na kasali si Jose, Pedro, Juan sa krimen dahil kay Prima Facie. Dapat may national manhunt dito kay Prima, mas masahol pa it kay John Doe at Jane Doe.

Q: Pero senator, este, congressman, Prima Facie ay Latin words ho iyan. It means sufficient corroborating evidence appears to exist to support a case.

Senatorial candidate Alma Moreno's TV interview

Here is Alma Moreno, your senator:

Alma calls on the phone Philippine Airlines
Alma: How long is the flight from Manila to Vancouver, Canada?
PAL OPERATOR: Just a minute please.
Alma: Wow ang bilis pala (puts phone down).

PLAY VIDEO HERE BELOW:

Alma in a burger joint
Alma: One burger please
Waiter: With pleasure maam
Alma: No with ketchup

Hay naku di ba may isa pa nga nung time nila tinanung siya ni Inday Badiday "More or less why do you think of the rumor that you and Dolphy are living together"
ALMA: "Ahh well siguro naman more..yes definitely more"
And when the audience laughed she retorts
ALMA: Ay hindi pala more....less pala

Q&A: PH Presidential frontrunner Grace Poe on EDCA and her Citizenship

Political columnist Mortz C. Ortigoza asked this afternoon Philippine presidential front runner  and  Senator Mary Grace Poe on whether she will vote for a military treaty’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the United States in case the Supreme Court strikes it out as unconstitutional since it fails to have the Senate’s concurrence. Ortigoza inquired too Poe if her re-acquisition of her Philippine Citizenship through Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003  (Republic Act 9225) is the all encompassing act that shroud her being a natural citizenship and makes her qualified to run as presidential candidate of the Philippines as required by the Constitution. Excerpts:

Interviewer Ortigoza poses with Senator Grace Poe in one of the latter
visits at San Carlos City, the city, of her late father actor Fernando
Poe, Jr.

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA (MCO): Sa Resolution po ng Senado karamihan gusto nila ang Senado ratify the EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement).

GRACE POE (GP): (Pause)

MCO: Iyong executive military agreement between the United States and the Philippine Government sa Resolution ni Senator (Merriam) Santiago that there could be no EDCA without the concurrence of the Senate.

GP: Opo

MCO: Maam, anytime from now ang Supreme Court kasi magde-decision sa Constitutionality ng EDCA.

GP: Opo

MCO: In case i-sustain ng Supreme Court ang petition (by Harry Roque, Former Senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tanada, et al) na unconstitutional the EDCA, pag nilagay sa Senado, are you in favour for EDCA (as we face the incessant Chinese incursion in our territories)?

GP: Para sa amin po kasi kailangan ang Senado na magkaroon ng pagkakataon na i-review ito. Kasama po ito sa trabaho ng Senado - responsibilidad. Ngayon, at ang Senado  rin ang magde-determine kung kailangan talaga ito. O bago itong kasundu-an o ito ba ang karagdagan lang sa dati.

Sa tanung  ninyo, importante na magkaroon ng mga maitutulong sa ating siguridad. Pero kailangan natin rebyuhin iyong proposal bago magbigay ng commitment dito. Kaya nga hinihingi natin iyong sa Senado.

MCO: Former U.E Dean Amado Valdez discussed about three talking points about your citizenship in 2006, 2010, and 2011 when he filed recently at the Comelec for your disqualification in the presidential race.

PH election is for the rich only

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Because of my tight schedules last Monday I failed to join the media interview in my city with administration presidential bet Mar Roxas when he whistled stops in the cities of Dagupan and San Carlos and Rosales, Pangasinan.

STUMP.Administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas exhorts last Monday
 the market goers at his ala-town hall meeting at the market place of Dagupan City.
After Dagupan City, Roxas and party whistled stops in San Carlos City and
Rosales, Pangasinan. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

I should be asking him if he is open for the United States to have bases in the Philippines amid the active incursions of China on our islets and reefs at the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoals.
I should be asking him why he was no longer aggressive these days on his TV ads at GMA-7 and ABS-CBN unlike last August 15 to September 15 where he had a daily average of nine infomercials in each of the two giant TV stations where he paid, according to media reports, P257 million to double his pathetic survey numbers from 10% last June to 20% in September 2 to 5 that landed him in No. 2 at Pulse Asia’s poll.
I should be asking him where did he get that huge amount on TV ads and the alleged P100 million billboards his supporters erected all over the country.
Roxas' Statement of Assets & Liabilities (SALN) last year was a net worth of P202, 080, 452. 71. It does not mean that he poured it all in August's TV ads because he had donors too from other sources. I hope Roxas submit to the Comelec those tens of millions of pesos of donations after the election as mandated by the Omnibus Election Code.
I should be asking him that in the 210 KIA utility vehicles bought by the Department of Interior & Local Government, he used to head, for the Philippine National Police, each of the cars cost the government P1.9 million but in reality, according to car experts, the price should be P1, 160,000 only.
“Where did the P740,000 for each cars or P155 million overpriced for the entirety of the purchased go? Why there was no significant discount since the government bought them by bulk?” my posers would be coined like that.
***
At the ala town hall meeting at the Malimgas  Market I bumped into a Bombo Reporter whose station interviewed earlier Roxas for 30 minutes.
“Magkano singil ninyo kada minute, P2000 or P60,000 sa kabu-unan ng trenta minutos?”
He told me Roxas paid P50, 000 for that 30 minutes media exposure on the No.1 provincial radio station.
"You should be asking him the tough questions I should be asking him ," I told him.
 But the reporter told me since it was a paid broadcast, the posers have been fed to them by the P.R of the presidential candidate.
I was curious about the P50 thousand for 30 minutes price since early this year, two gubernatorial wannabe in my province have been paying P1000 per minute or P30,000 a day in a 30 minutes bloc time program to promote their candidacy.
With all these huge monies I mentioned, who says Philippine presidential election is for those who have met the following qualifications like: 1. Natural born citizen of the Philippines;2. Registered voter; 3. Able to read and write; 4. At least 40 years of age on the day of election; 5. Resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the election as what the Philippine Constitution provides?
If you cannot show a respectable sum before the eyes of the Commission on Election to launch an effective campaign nationwide, those basic Constitutional requirements are nothing because the Comelec has the power to strike you out in the race because you are a nuisance candidate as based on your financial capacity.