Sabado, Disyembre 30, 2017

Why snipers are glorified, glamorized?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Can you still remember that famous and courageous soldier who took off his Kevlar helmet and bullet vest as quid pro quo to ISIS rebels in Marawi City so he could save a four years old girl  and other Christian hostages from the ISIS rebels in Marawi City in exchange of containers of water, soft drinks, and biscuits?
Yap, he is Army Captain Jeffrey Buada, commander of the 15th Scout Ranger Company.
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 British Royal Marine snipers with their L115A1 sniper rifles.
After he was feted recently by his town Mangaldan in Pangasinan for his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in Marawi, I asked Buada, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, about those incidents while we consumed our snacks treated by Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno and the town’s chief of Police Superintendent Jeff Fanged.
 Buada’s wife told me that the spouse is a sniper, too.
Indeed he was as I saw earlier on his shoulder badge a sniper’s logo embroidered with a glaring red word “Sniper”.
Marksmen like Buada played a major role in the urban warfare in the Philippines where the State Security just won in a protracted Pyrrhic victory against the international terrorist Islamic groups and their associates’ Maute Muslim rebels in the now scorched to that ground Southern Philippines’ city.

Lunes, Disyembre 18, 2017

What Charter Change? Just change the PSA to draw investors

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Sa Pilipinas meron ho tayong 2.8 million (January 2018 NEDA) na unemployed at 2.3 million na overseas foreign workers (OFWs) as of 2018 according to psa.gov.ph.
Ilagay natin na kalahati sa OFWs na ito ay napilitan lamang magtrabaho abroad because of glaring unemployment problems dito sa Pinas. So, kung may pagkakataon na may trabaho dito, ay dito na nila pipiliin na mamalagi.
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Foreign Investors
Siyempre, malapit sa pamilya at peace of mind kay mister na nasa abroad.
Why? Anak ng baka, mababantayan niya si misis sa lurking adulterous relationship sa kay kumpare na mukhang matagal ng may pagtitinginang malagkit ang dalawa sa isat-isa.
Sanamagan, that’s the social cost of working abroad!
So how can the government mediate for these unemployed and OFWs to have jobs in the country?

Ex-Con warns people on hard jail life

                                Crime Does Not Pay

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A convicted cattle rustler in Pangasinan recalled the hardship of being a detainee at the jail here and the years he spent at the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
Jose de Guzman (not his real name) told Northern Watch Newspaper that aside from the skin diseases like galis (scabies) that afflicted him inside the Bureau of Jail, Management, & Penology (BJMP) here for his two years and two months detention, he slept squatting because the cement floor were filled with prisoners who lay like sardines because of congestion.
HELL - The hellish existence of being a detainee in a Philippine prison.
Photo Credit: News.comau
The BJMP’s buildings have been occupied by more than one thousand inmates despite the capacity of the dormitories there to occupy 300 detainees.
“Tatlong tabo lang ng tubig ang puwedi mong gamitin sa kada araw na ligo mo doon?”De Guzman lamented.
He said after being convicted by the Regional Trial Court here he was sent to the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa to serve the between 10 ten years and more than 17 years of sentence meted to him.
He cited that punishment by leaders of convicts to a violent prisoner was harsh.

De Guzman said if he hit an innocent prisoner, the Mayor’ or Dormitory Chief will summon them to hear who started the fracas.
The Mayor’ or Bise Mayor’ determined if the troublemaker offended his fellow prisoner.
“If the mayor or the vice mayor saw I committed the offense I was accused of, the Mayor’ or Bise Mayor’ will order the prisoners led by the Bastonero or Kulturero to force me in a prone position on the concrete pavement by holding my hands and feet for the punishment,” he stressed in Tagalog.
De Guzman said the Bastonero would hit his back legs with a dos por tres (2 by 3 size lumber) thrice as a form of punishment.
“That was the usual punishment they inflict to troublemaker,” he deplored.
De Guzman recalled that in year 2011 he was ordered by Anacleto Ladislao (not his real name) to steal a cow in San Jacinto, Pangasinan in exchanged of P2, 500.
He said at 7 pm he pulled the livestock to walk till dawn the 23 kilometers stretch to reach another village where Ladislao would give him his payment.
But when I reached the village I saw him with some policemen”.
Even though he sneaked out from the peace officers he was still arrested several months later at his village when he was making charcoal he prepared to sell.
He was plucked to the BJMP here where he served for more than two years and until he was sent to the national jail in Metro Manila after the RTC convicted him of the felony he committed.

“Crime does not pay. I hope my narration will become a lesson that life in prison is hard and tough,” he lamented.

Biyernes, Disyembre 8, 2017

Bad, Good News sa Ekonomiya ng Pinas

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Ang Pilipinas at Indonesia na daw ngayon ang may pinaka maraming mahihirap sa ASEAN 10 ayon sa United Nation Development Program (UNDP) na sinulat sa Philippine Star.
Ang ASEAN 10 ay kinabibilangan ng Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, and Laos.
Mantakin ninyo ba naman sa declaration ng UNDP pati si Laos na matagal ng panahon na laos sa kahirapan tinalo at nila-os na niya now si Pinas sa dami ng mahihirap, anak ng bakang dalaga!
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Glaring Poverty in the Philippines. Photo Credit: RC
Ang dahilan kung bakit dumami ang mahirap sa bansa natin ay dahil lumubo ang population natin sa 103.3 million noong 2016 (World Bank), iyon ang sumaling kaagad sa isip ko noong binabasa ko ang news article.
Parang rabbit kasi ang Pinoy pag nanganganak! Tapos kung sino pa ang pobre iyon pa iyong madaming anak. Sobrang fertile naman ni tatay at ni nanay – rabbit nga!

Pero noong kino-compute ko ang figures ng population ng mga selected na bansa sa ASEAN 10 mukhang mali ang computation ng UNDP na mas maraming mahirap sa Pilipinas kung ikumpara natin ang Per Capita Income versus sa Laos.

Linggo, Disyembre 3, 2017

FILIPINO LADY WARRIORS


Air Force Combat Pilot Captain Monessa Catuncan, whose parents were originally from Pasay City and Olongapo City, was featured by the Asian Journal for her remarkable achievements as an F-16 fighter pilot that brought pride and honor to both the U.S. and the Philippines.

The brainy and beauteous Catuncan is the youngest daughter of Filipino immigrants Mr. & Mrs. Ramon Catuncan, now of Mesquite, Texas.

Even in her early years in school, Monessa excelled in academics, graduating valedictorian in a class of 693 in Mesquite High School in Texas in 2000.

She later passed the rigid entrance examinations given by the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs also that year and graduated as one of the top student-pilots in her class in 2004. Photo and Text Credit: mixedmartialarts.com


UH-OH, THE LADY IS A SCOUT RANGER, PMYER AND A DAUGHTER OF A HERO - FOOT SOLDIER'S ACCOUNT: "Lt. Jing Forrosuelo, anak ng Medal of Valor awardee namin sa Ranger na si late Sgt. Claudio Forrosuelo. Walong taong gulang pa lang si Jing ng mamatay sa opening salvo ng all-out war sa Mindanao nung 2000. Leading team ang kanyang Papa sa unang salpukan ng MILF versus Rangers sa Maguindanao. Naipit sila sa harap at ang kanilang buong battalion ay kailangang mag reposition para mas maayos ang laban.

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Lieutenant Jing Forrosuelo (PMA Class 2014)
Photo and Text Credit: Philippine Army Scout Rangers
Malalagasan lang kasi sila ng madami kung di maka reposition ang unit. Nag volunteer si late Sgt. Claudio Forrosuelo na mag paiwan ang buong team niya para lang maka maneuver ang tropa nila. Alam niyang mamamatay ang buong team niya sa dami ng kalaban. Pero nag desisyon sila na magpaiwan para mabuhay lang mga kasama nila. Nag hold- the-line sina late Forrosuelo hanggang maubusan ng bala at ma over run sila ng kalaban. Namatay silang pito na magkakasama pero nailigtas nila ang mga kasama nila. Sa bilib ni Jing kay Papa niya, sumunod siya sa yapak niya. Nag graduate siya sa PMA Class 2014 at mas matindi pa, sumali sa First Scout Ranger Regiment, ang unit ng Papa niya. Happy birthday ulit Jing!"

Sabado, Disyembre 2, 2017

Unlike Filipinos, Vietnamese don’t shoot Pinoy Fishermen

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When the Presidential Management Staff told us media men that President Rodrigo Duterte would visit Sual, Pangasinan at 3 pm today to send off the five Vietnamese sea poachers arrested last September (the other two were shot to death by the cocky men of our Philippine Navy), I told Ruel Camba, newspaper editor and broadcaster, we leave Dagupan City at 10:30 am so we could hobnob with his PR client Sual Mayor Roberto “Bing” Arcinue.

When we arrived at the mayor’s cozy office inside the swanky multi-million pesos huge town hall (the first class coastal town has P311 million annual appropriation funds this year, thanks to the coal power plant that pays P100 million taxes annually), Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan and his Military Attaché’, that I assumed a colonel despite a three-star on his shoulder board insignias, were exchanging pleasantries with the hizzoner.
Author pressed flesh with Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan during the visit  Wednesday of President Rodrigo Duterte in Sual, Pangasinan.


When Kuya Bing called me and Ruel to join the Vietnamese dignitaries in their lunch with sinigang na malaga, egado, pork giniling, adobo, and others I told His Excellency Tuan that I was a lover of the Vietnamese history.
"My idol is General Vo Nguyen Giap, he defeated the French in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the Americans in March 1973,” I cited.
I told Ruel that French Colonel Christian de Castries, commander of the mountainous Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, put six satellite fortresses he allegedly named from his seven mistresses Huguette, Claudine, Dominique, Anne-Marie, Beatrice, Gabrielle, and Isabelle.
The defeat of the French that was concluded in those trench battles reminiscent of World War 1 humiliated France and ended her colonization of that Indochina country that saw the intervention of the superpower United States that dragged the war till early of 1970s.
Giap, a former journalist, was the military leader in Vietnam for more than 30 years and is regarded as one of the greatest military strategists ever. According to factsanddetails.com He: 1) led the Viet Minh in the critical stages of war against France; 2) was the strategist behind Dien Bien Phu; 3) helped create the Ho Chi Minh trail; 4) built up the North Vietnamese army; 5) lead the North Vietnamese forces Viet Cong in the war against the United States; and 6) masterminded the Tet Offensive that became the last straw of the U.S involvement in that sorry but proud country.
Son of a gun, Vietnam should be proud as it overtook last year the Philippines in snaring billions of U.S dollars in hosting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the ASEAN 10 where the Philippines was even named by World Bank to have the most poor people compared to Cambodia and Laos - not the real la-os in the vernacular but the real country near Vietnam.
After President Duterte,  Ly Quoc Tuan, and government officials sent off to their sea vessel the five poachers who would be sailing from Sual to Vietnam for several days, I saw 15 minutes later the Ambassador standing alone at one of the corners of the wharf waiting probably for his official limousine.
Your Excellency can you still remember me?” I went to the envoy by using an address that befits his president he represented in this rambunctious country.
“Yah, the guy who loved General Giap!” his eyes lightened up.
After I posed my first two questions to him I saw behind my shoulders national and local television and newspaper reporters and cameramen gathered where one of them Yolly Fuertes of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and this paper threw questions too to Ambassador Ly.
The posers revolved on the Vietnamese boat numbered PY 96173 TS that was caught illegally fishing at the Philippine exclusive economic zone 34 nautical miles off Cape Bolinao in Pangasinan Province from 8:30 pm on September 22 to 1:00 am the following day.
As Philippine Navy vessel's PS19 pursued the six Vietnamese ships that were caught inflagrante delicto using powerful lights to draw fish, one of them tried to obstruct and attack the huge BRP Miguel Malvar.
The crew of PS19 opened fire on the men at PY 96173 TS when they intended to ram the front of the government vessel.
Two Vietnamese fishermen were killed from the volley of fires from the Filipinos while several others were arrested following the incident
Despite the investigation being done by both countries' foreign affairs offices, I asked the ambassador if his country will file a criminal case against the naval men.
Before the eyes of the Filipinos what the Filipino crew had done could either be murder or homicide because of the excessive force they used against your compatriots?” I posed.
“I tell you, this is a relation very very good relation between the two good countries,” he retorted.
He said even Filipino fishermen caught by the Vietnamese authority were not shot at in their territorial sea.
“No, we don’t do the same. We have a lot of Filipino fishermen you know we asked the Embassy of the Philippines in Vietnam to come and to pick and return them home so we have done…” he said.
When I asked him if their navy or coast guard instead shoot those pesky Chinese poachers that violated their territorial sea, this he retorted:
“No, no! We don’t use force”.
Gee whiz, the envoy whose gutsy countrymen who would die by thousands just to kill and defeat the Americans in the Historic Battles of Khe Sanh and Hamburger Hill was telling Mortz Baby that they don’t shoot Filipinos even these Flips shot to death their fellow Vietnamese and that 65-year-old Taiwan fisherman Hung Shih-cheng killed in 2013 by eight trigger happy and machine gun toting members of the Navy at the northern coast of the country near the Taiwan sea.
Before I left I gave him my second issue of our newspaper.
“You have column here?” he asked.
“Ya, at page 5 I talked about the Urban Warfare Battle of Marawi City and its counterpart in Vietnam the 1968 Battle of the City of Hue’ where 17 battalions of U.S Marines, U.S Army and Army Republic of Vietnam fought like hell versus the 10 battalions of Vietcong and the communist People’s Army of Vietnam(PAVN or NVA) who were holed in at the buildings there”.
Even the Yanks and South Vietnamese forces won the Hue’ Battle, the almost 700  Americans who died at the peripheries of Citadel of the City had psychological impacts to the American public in the U.S Mainland that help influenced Uncle Sam to end the insane war that country perpetrated during the Cold War.\

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 (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com).