Call a spade a spade

It has always struck me as odd that in all the reporting done by Philippine news outfits about the so-called second “warship” that will soon be joining the Philippine Navy, not a single journalist has ever bothered to ask what the ship comes equipped with in terms of armaments.

I find it odd because if the BRP Ramon Alcaraz is truly the warship Philippine officials claim it to be, and Filipino journalists unquestioningly quote them as saying, then a detailed description of the warship's weaponry would have normally followed as a matter of course.

It makes no sense to describe anything as something intended for war without saying what it will go to war with. Yet, in all the minutes, or even hours, of airtime reports or rolls of paper used in newspaper accounts, there has not been a single line about the kind of weaponry the Alcaraz has that would qualify it as a warship.

This very strange silence on such a vital piece of information does not do justice to the level of interest the acquisition by the Philippines of the Alcaraz, and its sister “warship” the BRP Gregorio del Pilar before it, has generated among the Filipino people.

Remember that we never had warships before. So one would have thought that now that we have not just one but two, it would have been a very big deal to show off what our new acquisitions are capable of. For whatever it is worth, two warships should have bought us a little bragging right.

But no. Nobody is talking about the Gregorio del Pilar's and the Ramon Alcaraz's armaments. All that can be deduced is what one observes from published photographs of the two ships, or for the more knowledgable, what the facts are regarding the ships that they really are.

The truth about the Gregorio del Pilar and the Ramon Alcaraz is that they are former US Coast Guard Hamilton class cutters. Cutters are not warships even if they do have some weaponry. Instead they are used, in the case of the USCG, for law enforcement purposes.

To be clear about it, Hamilton class cutters such as the Gregorio del Pilar and the Ramon Alcaraz are not exactly helpless. Each is outfitted with a 76mm cannon as a forward gun, two 25mm Mk38 machineguns, and a Phalanx CIWS anti-missile close-in defense system.

But you do not go to war with them, as what most people understand about the term warship. In fighting off pirates, smugglers, kidnappers, and perhaps even illegal fishers, cutters equipped with these weapons would suffice. But again you do not go to war with them. Cutters, in a strict sense, are not warships.

And that is why their weaponry is never mentioned whenever the Gregorio del Pilar and the Ramon Alcaraz are in the news, which is frequently. Because to mention their armaments, as stated above, would expose them for what they really are. But that is precisely what should be done if this nation is to avoid any false expectations.

Take note that we are now living in tension-filled times, what with continuing Chinese provocations in the South China Sea, and a recent fishery row with Taiwan that resulted in a shooting incident where a Taiwanese fisherman got shot by Philippine Coast Guard personnel.

In times like these, it would be a big boost to our morale and a great anchor for our patriotic fervor if we can be made to feel we are not exactly push-overs. One way to achieve that is to condition our minds that we now have “warships” just in case. But only if the “warships” are real.

The sad truth is, they are not, and the sooner we are made aware of this, the better. At the very least, we know where we stand against our neighbors. At least we know that if we cannot hack it, we better stay in the sidelines. Let us not make foolhardy suicides of ourselves.

I am not trying to be a kill-joy. I just do not want us, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, to charge the whole of India with a shotgun. It would have been great if we can have, say, a guided-missile destroyer. Now that would be a true warship. What we have, however, are two resurrected cutters each armed with a cannon and machineguns. Let's call a spade a spade.