Are Filipinos benefiting on the military exercises with the U.S?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

During the official visit of the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Japan, radio listeners and Face Book Live Feed’s viewers were treated about my narration with co-anchor Harold Barcelona on my nephew (father was Japanese) who was anointed by Japan Emperor Akihito to be the lead samurai or powerful military caste of the Imperial House or Koshitsu of the Nippon.

Author (extreme right) sports with the helmet and vest
used by the U.S Marines who manned the High
 Mobility Artillery Rocket System  (HIMARS)
they used during a military exercise with
Philippine military.

Here’s what I told Harold when I went in 2014 with my nephew at the Koshitsu for the contest where my nephew Maraki Akin-ari, 21, was pitted with contestants from Tokyo and Nagasaki about their quickness and deft in handling a samurai’s sword.

When Akihito threw a fly above, the Tokyo guy unleashed his sword and struck the fly by slicing it into two pieces. 
Spectators applauded.

When the Sun-God of Japan, threw a fly above, the Nagasaki guy rapidly hammered it twice with his sword and the fly was sliced into four pieces.

Spectators went wild.

When it was the turn of my nephew who grew up in Tondo and not Tokyo as previously described by the media, the Emperor threw the fly above and Maraki Akin-ari attempted to hit the fly  20 times but to no avail. The fly still flew and nagalit si Akihito.

“Wala kang kuwentang Samurai, 20 times mong tinaga ang bangaw, walang nangyari. Hindi ka puweding maging Lead Samurai dito sa Imperial Palace,” he chided my nephew.

My nephew whom I trained, during our drinking spree with Kuatro Kantos, on the Art of Reasons emphatically told the Emperor in Pilipino that was immediately translated into Japanese:

“Mahal na hari, hindi ibig sabihin na sa 20 times kong pag hampas ng espada ay pumalpak na ako. Kumuha kayo ng microscope o magnifying glass para makita ninyo kung paano ko tinuli o ni circumcised ang langaw”.

***

My daughter Alex, 9, Grade 4, asked me how to pose questions in a mock press conference after she became a member of the editorial staff of her school newspaper.

Sabi ko ito ang pagtanung: "What is your take on your visit to Japan?" (If the interviewee is an imagined President Duterte).

Then I told her some of my “anecdotes” interviewing dignitaries;

ME: Senator Pacquiao what is your stand on K-12?

PACQUIAO: (who was sitting): I don't want to stand, I want to sit. I don't want K-12, I like K-9.

ME: How's the violence here in Maguindanao?

MAGUINDANAO GOVERNOR ANDAL AMPATUAN: (Who finished only Grade 3) Violin? I could not even play guitar. You asked me about violin goddammit!!! You want me to kill you?

***

I saw recently a column that reads the Philippines did not benefit to Balikatan or military exercise with the U.S.

I disagreed of course.

Here were the advantages of having military exercises with a super power based on my conversation with the U.S Marines at Clark Air Base in Pampanga early this year that manned the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
ME: How can the guided rockets of HIMARS hit with accuracy the Chinese warships if one of this is posted at one of the islets of the Philippines at the South China Sea?
US MARINE 1: They would be GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) guided.
ME: Oh, just like what the C.I.A backed Colombian government had done with the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerillas when the Cessna propeller powered plane dropped a GPS guided 500- pound bomb at the guerrillas whose fire they used in cooking food betrayed them in nighttime.
ME: Is the price of this monster (Himars) $5.1 million apiece?
MARINE 2: Naah, its $6 million apiece now.

ME: Philippine government should buy some these so we can sink those ships of the Chinks.

***

Here’s what I read recently from Diplomat.com, the Bible of foreign policy makers:

"Vietnam’s defense expenditures were the fourth largest in Southeast Asia, behind only Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand; all wealthier or significantly larger economies. It was the first year that Vietnam’s spending surpassed Malaysia’s. The defense budget is an estimated $5 billion in 2016, and it is expected to grow to $6 billion by 2020”.

According to the article, written by Zachary Abuza, PhD, a Professor at the National War College in Washington D.C, Vietnam has built one of the largest coast guard forces in the region (much bigger than those of the Philippines, Indonesia, or Malaysia).

Abuza, probably my distant relative since his surname sounds like Ortigoza te-heh, stressed that Vietnam has acquired six Russian-built Kilo-class submarines, five of which have been delivered, and the sixth will arrive in early 2017. He said that gives Vietnam the most advanced submarine fleet in the region. The former French colony that was torched by the U.S in the Vietnam War, has already trained nine of 12 submarine crews and at least one submarine is currently patrolling without its Russian trainers and advisers. Vietnam surprised many when it successfully purchased submarine-launched Klub anti-shore missiles from Russia.

These Russian made anti-shore missiles could hit the facilities built by the Chinese in the Spratly’s and Paracel Islands.

“Pati Israel kumikita dito sa arms race sa South East Asia, herSPYDER, a new short-medium range air defense battery, Galil assault rifles, Tavor assault rifles, Negev machine guns, and Galatz sniper rifles for the Vietnamese Marine Corps are being bought by the Vietnamese in preparation for her war against China that humiliated her when the Chinks killed her marines and navy personnel and destroyed her naval ships and took her Paracel Islets in 1974, I told my avid radio listeners Denmark Suede (the son of the late hard hitting radio commentator Eddie Suede of Bombo Radyo- Iloilo) and Silvestre Rayos, the political kibitzer in the U.S.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)