Mea culpa, Mr. President
I’M publicly apologizing to the President for my light banter on my Facebook and Twitter accounts about his scarce public appearances lately.
Mea culpa, mea culpa.
I said in those FB and Twitter posts that if the President could play golf even at night, jog or ride a motorcycle within the Palace grounds, why couldn’t he go on national television to squelch speculations about the state of his health.
The nation heaved a sigh of relief when the Chief Executive appeared on national TV Monday night.
The nation was worried sick, Mr. President, because you didn’t show yourself in public.
Next time, please don’t make the nation nervous by your absence. Again, mea culpa for those posts. You don’t know how happy I am to be proven wrong.
*** Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr. and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s baring their fangs toward China for the intrusion of its ships at Julian Felipe Reef is laudable but pitiful.
Laudable, because they are standing up to China, a superpower that has become our newfound friend and business partner.
Pitiful, because their fighting stance is not backed by modern military armaments. All the country has are a small fleet of hand-me-down warships and fighter jets; mere bravado.
If we went to war with China over some protrusions of land and reefs in the West Philippine Sea, we would surely be trounced.
We can’t rely on our Mutual Defense Treaty with Uncle Sam who would not immediately come to our aid in case push escalates to shove.
The United States Congress will have to approve going to war with another country to defend the Philippines.
By the time the US Congress decides to help us, if at all, our military will have been decimated by the People’s Liberation Army.
President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is a very pragmatic statesman. An ant can never win against an elephant.
***
We should rebuild our miliTARY INTO A WORLD-CLASS fiGHTING organization before thinking of waging war with another country.
Our military has decrepit armaments. We were not like this before.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was the second-best equipped in Asia, next only to Japan.
Our Philippine Air Force’s “Blue Diamond” squadron was proudly flying modern jet fighters. The PAF had numerous transport planes and helicopters.
The Philippine Navy had many LSTs (landing ship transport), gunships and mine sweepers.
In those two decades, our soldiers were also among the highest paid in this part of Asia.
I remember my father, Ramon Sr., telling me in 1964 that his salary as major in the AFP was equivalent to the pay of a lieutenant general in the South Korean Army.
Why we’ve lost our edge over our neighbors in Southeast Asia is story worth telling in another column.
***
From the grapevine... A Cabinet official was reportedly planning to buy an P85million property in Barangay Solo, Mabini, Batangas.
The secretary looked over the property, which was located in a scuba diving community. He is a diving enthusiast.
People who huddled with the Cabinet official, who’s known as “Mr. 20 Percent” among people who transact business with government, are now worried they might contract Covid-19.
Let’s hope this Cabinet official does not represent the entire Duterte officialdom whose terms are co-terminus with their boss.
If many Cabinet officials are like him, we can be sure that their corrupt ways will contribute to the bankruptcy of the government after Digong’s term ends.
***
Another piece from the rumor mill… A lawyer who’s married to a scion of a prominent family of politicians is in deep muck after his wife found out that he had impregnated their housemaid.
The lawyer’s wife, a local official, is a termagant and feisty and is considered a terror in her bailiwick.
Her constituents are incredulous over her patience with the hubby.
The scuttlebutt is that the lawyer’s father, who is also a lawyer, has been using the name of his son’s wife’s for influence peddling.