Paf’s 70th! A salute from the Filipino people!

By now our readers already know that the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the validity of Proclamation No. 216 or President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law that he made last May 23rd for all of Mindanao.

During Tuesday’s en banc session, the SC Justices, voting 11-3-1, dismissed the petitions filed by House of Representatives’ minority bloc represented by Rep. Edcel Lagman and Rep. Gary Alejano in the name of residents of Mindanao and women from Marawi.

What the SC decision didn’t tell us was that those petitioners against Martial Law still had that Martial Law hangover which then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos declared on Sept. 21, 1972 or 45 years ago. If there is any political family vehemently against the Marcoses and Martial Law, it is the Aquino family and if you examined the petitioners carefully, you will see their links to the Aquino family.

But the Martial Law declared for Mindanao by Pres. Duterte is a totally different animal from the Martial Law that Pres. Marcos declared. But those yellows who have not yet moved on, try to make parallels between the Martial Law in Mindanao to the Martial Law 45 years ago. Again my message to those people… move on peeps!

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Just like the City of Mosul, Iraq, which is now in its last few days of fighting of what’s left of the ISIS fighters in its suicidal attempt to hold on to their destroyed Caliphate, Marawi City too is also on its last few days fighting the remaining Maute terrorists who laid siege and destroyed Marawi City. Of course the Philippine Air Force (PAF) did the most damage by their incessant air strikes… but like it or not, it is the only way to flush out the well entrenched and hidden Maute snipers and let me say it loud and clear those air strikes did a great job in flushing out the Maute terrorists.

The other day, no less than Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte honored the men and women of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) on their 70th PAF anniversary. During the mid-1950’s the PAF had squadrons of P-51 Mustang fighters of World War II fame and later they were replaced by F-86 Sabre Jets used in the air war during the Korean conflict. Then in the 1970’s the Philippines and US Allies were given the F-5 Supersonic Fighter planes, where we proudly had a squadron of the famous Blue Diamonds.

Somehow the PAF went into a decline after Martial Law and the joke was… we had more pilots than airplanes and we had a lot of air! The Battle for Marawi has changed our perception of the PAF. That the PAF technicians and mechanics could still make the Vietnam era OV-10 Bronco with their Garrett engines swoop down on Marawi City on their bombing run is proof of Filipino ingenuity and resilience. These twin boom Counter Insurgency (COIN) aircraft which resembles also the famous (also a twin boom tail) Lockheed P-38 Lightning of World War II has marveled many aviation specialists that the PAF pilots could still use them with great effectivity!

But those fighter planes are aging and I understand that after the Balikatan 2016 joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US Military was over, the US military left at least five A-10 Thunderbolt “Warthog” Attack Aircraft and three Pave Hawk HH-60G search and rescue helicopters and one MC-130H Combat Talon II Special Operations Aircraft (This is a Hercules based attack aircraft) under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Perhaps it is time for the US Air Force to give the PAF a squadron or more of those A-10 Warthogs as they are essential to our counter insurgency efforts. Anyway the US Air Force has already mothballed most of these great fighter planes!

That Pres. Duterte also accepted new Chinese made AK-47 weapons from the People’s Republic of China for the AFP is a major morale booster to the men and women of the AFP. Indeed, Pres. Duterte is right that the bore of our old Armalite M-16’s are already very loose, which means they can’t shoot straight. This gift from China was through the effort of Pres. Duterte who personally sought help from Chinese President Xi.

I also read in the news that a PAF C-130 Hercules was dispatched to the US on a supply run in order to replenish the PAF stockpile of bombs and rockets, which thousands of bombs and missiles were already fired in Marawi City. The Australian military too has sent a surveillance aircraft in order to weed out those Maute terrorists. Indeed it is heartening to note that our Allies have gone out of its way to help us fight the ISIS threat before they can gain a foothold in the Southern Philippines.

That we now have a Joint RP-Indonesian Naval Patrol in the Sulu Sea, including RP-US Naval exercises also in the same area is a great effort in plugging the holes in our very porous borders with our ASEAN neighbors. After all the war against Global Terrorism isn’t our fight alone.

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