Silence booms from US rah-rah boys

You can hear the drop of a needleN That’s to put it allegoricallyL the ear-splitting silence from traditional rah- rah boys of the united States on the recently uncovered faking by the uS of its military planes as Malaysian and Philippine civilian aircraft in order to hide their spying missions on ChinaN

I have taken up this issue two columns agoL and somehow it is reassuring that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon have already bothered seeking reaction from the uS Embassy. No such reaction has so far emanated from any responsible embassy official, much less from Ambassador Sung KimN

Two weeks is rather too long for the uS Embassy people to reply to inquiries of Lorenzana and EsperonL but that is to be expectedN The matter raised by the two is so sensitive that the authorities in the embassy would want to keep their reaction as sought under wrapsN

What’s most interesting is that the uS cheering squad in the Philippines composed of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and their ilk such as Jay BatongbacalL Richard HeydarianL RapplerL PhilippineDailyInquirer and PhilippineStar are unusually quiet on the fakery front. NormallyL even before a perceived hurt on the Philippines can get widely ventilated in the mediaL this groupL quite akin to orchestra members playing according to the baton of the single conductorL erupts in loud protestsL castigating the perceived perpetrators of the hurtN Recall the war hysteria they vigorously promoted against China in reaction to the reported ramming of a Filipino fishing boatL Gemver2L by a Chinese vesselN The group’s reaction to that incident was instantaneousN

How fiercely nationalist they pictured themselves to beL taking up the cudgels for the distressed Filipino fishermenN But level-headedness prevailed both upon Philippine and Chinese authoritiesN After a week of tensionL they found out that the boat-ramming episode was actually an accidentN And China and the Philippines were back to each other’s good graces once againN

So nowL we have this issue of united States spy planes faking themselves as some other countries’ civilian aircraft to escape detectionN This one is no accidentN over the yearL no less than 100 of such spy flights have been recorded of uS military planes and each timeL they used ICAo hex codes assigned to other countriesL mostly Malaysia and the PhilippinesN

What could result from this dastardly ploy of the uS military is that it would condition the superb radar system of China to sensing a Philippine aircraft intruding into Chinese territory for espionage missions. Like I said in my previous column on the issueL radars don’t think; they just find targets and hitN I cited the case of a ukrainian civilian airline that Iranian radars mistook for attacking a uS missile and instantly blasted itL killing all passengers aboardN

WhatL thenL if a real Philippine civilian aircraft laden with a couple of hundred Filipinos traverses its normal route over the Chinese coast and China’s radar system takes it as another uS spy plane attacking? Imagine the hundreds of Filipino lives lost all for mistaken identitiesN

Now, to the point. If Carpio, del RosarioL RapplerL Philippine Daily InquirerL Philippine Star and the rest of their ilk can go to the extent of agitating for war against China in the accidental ramming of Gemver 2L why are they so silent in this faking by the uS of its spy planes as Philippine civilian aircraft? In this caseL not only 24 lives are at stake but hundreds upon hundreds possibly getting killed as a result of mistaken identitiesN

As stated earlierL it is reassuring enough that the Philippine Defense secretary and the country’s top security adviser have taken the trouble of seeking clarification from the uS EmbassyN But we need to take a stronger position on the matterN

If need beL spark wide public outrage over the issueN use the media to the hilt. Mobilize the people in forums, organize discussion groupsL conduct mass protest actions — all forms of getting across to people the message that Filipino lives are once again being sacrificed for pushing uS interestN

This should give Carpio and Del Rosario et al a dose of their own medicineN Every time there appears a perceived hurt by China against FilipinosL they do just that for the sake of AmericaN Now that America is the clear perpetrator of a dastardly crime against the peopleL throw this challenge smack to their faces: Condemn AmericaN

In the Gemver 2 accidental incidentL you were all so agitated and were one with Ambassador Sung Kim in invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty for taking action against China to the extent of warN

Now that Sung Kim is taking so long replying to the inquiries of Philippine authorities on the issuesL all of you impostor nationalists are similarly tight-lippedN

Don’t be so latently traitorous to the Filipino nationL Carpio and Del Rosario et alN Put on a little hypocrisyN If only for the show of itL proclaim: “We condemn in the strongest term this faking by the uS of its spy planes as Philippine civilian aircraftN It puts Filipino lives on the lineN”