EDITORIAL - The state of the military

Several years ago, the Philippine Navy held what was billed as naval exercises somewhere in the seas of Western Visayas. Everybody expected these exercises to be what most people always presumed naval exercises to be.

That was the height of naivete. When the pictures started coming out in the newspapers about the exercises, most Filipinos were in for the shock of their lives. Almost all of the vessels involved in the exercise were nothing more than outriggers.

That was the state of the Philippine Navy then and there is no reason to expect that things are any better now. The same is true with the Philippine Air Force, which is now merely composed of nothing more than training aircraft and a few helicopters, most of them overaged.

Recently, South Korea donated about a dozen old Cessnas, probably because they cannot find any space to dump them. The Philippine Air Force quickly lapped them up. If it flies, it will do under the circumstances. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. That leaves only the Philippine Army as the palpable embodiment of our military. But with insurgency wars on two fronts, plus a host of other duties taken over from an ill-trained and ill-equipped police, the Army is also being stretched thin.

If a foreign country ever attacks us at any time, it will not take very long for us to fall. Perhaps we can stave off immediate subjugation by guerrilla warfare. But that is only prolonging the agony.

Under existing circumstances, we are no more than sitting ducks. And this is very much worrisome given prevailing global security consitions. While almost every country, including the very peace-loving ones, have invested heavily on defense, we have not.

There could be several reasons for this. We may genuinely not have the money. Or if we had the money, maybe it went somewhere else. Or maybe this is really how we want ourselves to be.

Given the corrupt nature of the political leadership, it is infinitely better to keep the military hungry and dependent. A superbly-trained, fully-equipped, and highly-professional military will not allow itself to be easy picking for unscrupulous politicians.