All air, not assets

One of the major highlights of the just concluded state visit to Manila of Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada was the formal signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the acquisition of defense and security equipment for the Philippine military. Along with President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the Canadian Prime Minister witnessed the MOU signing held at Malacañang Palace last Saturday.

Secretary Voltaire Gazmin signed in behalf of the Department of National Defense with Canadian Minister for International Trade Ed Fast representing the state-run Canadian Commercial Corp. The MOU calls for Philippine purchases of equipment and expertise from Canada’s $12.6-billion defense industry that are guaranteed by the Ottawa government.

In their joint press conference at the Palace, President Aquino lamented the sorry state of our military air assets, with no single fighter plane in the present inventory of the Philippine Air Force (PAF).

I am not sure if it was a self-deprecating joke – he sounded like making one – when President Aquino pointed this out: “We have, in terms of transport, we now have – I’m pleased to note – a 100 percent increase in our air transport capability because previously, we have one C-130 operational; we now have two. It’s still a long way to go.”

This is not to mention that we still have in the PAF inventory a few remaining Rockwell OV-10 Bronco of World War II vintage that we got under our military alliance with the United States.

Naturally, the MOU with Canada on defense equipment procurement was linked to the prevailing territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over islands in the West Philippine Sea. With several S-211 trainer jets in its inventory, the PAF has been trying to cover as much areas to help patrol our territories along with Navy and Coast Guard ships.

This is why President Aquino has been strongly pushing for ways to fund the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) within the remaining three years of his administration. Gazmin earlier estimated due for delivery in a span of two years are surface attack aircraft, lead-in fighter trainer, attack helicopters, and light and medium lift transport aircraft.

It’s not only air assets that the PAF miserably lacks but also pilots. The PAF has been losing its pilots to high-paying jobs in commercial airlines. I learned that we only have 27 pilots after the PAF lost two of them this year from the recent crash off Bataan of one of its remaining S-211 trainer jets.

Undaunted, the PAF has reportedly been finalizing the contract for the delivery within the next two years of a dozen brand new T/A-50 lead-in fighter trainers from South Korean grants and loans to the Philippines. This I gathered when I attended the National Day and Armed Forces Day of Korea held last Nov. 6 at the ambassador’s residence in Forbes Park in Makati City.

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Former presidential spokesman Ignacio ”Toting” Bunye has come out with a book which he described as a layman’s guide to “help simplify the complex world of central banking.”

Bunye will formally launch his book aptly entitled Central Banking for every Juan and Maria this Friday (Nov. 16) at the Top Shelf of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, Global City in Taguig.

The book was obviously culled from his years of experience at the Monetary Board (MB). Bunye sits as one of the seven members of the MB – the highest policymaking body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Central Bank Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. sits as chairman of the MB.

In his foreword, Tetangco welcomed the book’s publication as something “that makes central banking easier for the general public to understand.” Skimming through an advance copy of the 165-page book that Bunye sent me, one chapter tried to explain in plain language how coins and pesos go around our financial system while dollars and other foreign exchange remittances of our overseas Filipino workers have kept afloat the Philippine economy despite the financial turmoil in other parts of the world.

The book caps Bunye’s return to writing which was his first job as a radio and later as a print reporter while he was a working law student. When he joined the MB, he was recruited to write a regular column. Published every Monday at the Manila Bulletin, Bunye’s “Speaking Out” column mostly talks about his present calling at the MB.

It was former President and now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who appointed Bunye to the MB in July 2008 to represent the private sector. Bunye first served as press secretary then later as presidential spokesman of Mrs. Arroyo for nearly seven years before he was appointed to the MB following his resignation from her Cabinet.

Incidentally, Bunye was one of the first officers-in-charge (OICs) appointed by former President Corazon Aquino, P-Noy’s late mother, to run the city government of Muntinlupa. This was after the February 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution when Mrs. Aquino removed all incumbent mayors and governors all over the country and replaced them with OICs.

Bunye was then one of the top executives of the Bank of the Philippine Islands when the late President Aquino recruited him to serve in the local government. He proved himself qualified in office, a fact validated by Muntinlupa residents who subsequently voted him mayor for three consecutive terms and later as their congressman, also for three consecutive terms.

Being a former newsman himself, Bunye also excelled as presidential spokesman-cum-press secretary. He distinguished himself for having lasted longer than the normal shelf life of appointees to this Cabinet position. This is because he knew how to do his job to the best of his abilities and despite the limits of his office.

As official spokesman, Bunye did not second-guess nor talked beyond and above the President, a trait sorely lacking among P-Noy’s stable of presidential spokespersons. The man has his own failings but making un-presidential comments or un-statesmanlike attacks was not among them.

The present crop of Palace mouthpieces seems to be in the same situation as our Air Force. In their case, they are full of air, not assets for our country.