JDV Recalls his Two Cong. Districts

                   SAYS HE IS THE ONLY FIVE-TIME SPEAKER IN THE WORLD

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY -  A retired seasoned politician waxed nostalgic on those days he represented his constituents in two congressional districts and his being the only five-time House Speaker in the world.

“As the five –time Speaker of the House don’t take that easy. That is first time in the history of Asia and the world I served as Speaker five times then my wife retired but she served twice and the she retired our congressman son took over. Now he is on his second term. All these happened because of the affection of the people of the Second District of Pangasinan and the Fourth District of Pangasinan. I’ve been the only in the Philippines who represented two congressional districts,” Jose de Venecia, known also as JDV, told recently foreign and local guests who attended his 83^rd birthday held at his swanky coastal abode in Barangay Bonuan Binloc here.

THUMB'S UP. Former five-time House Speaker Joe de Venecia shows a thumb's up sign while with wife former congresswoman Gina de Venecia. The posterity pose ensues during the 83rd Birthday of the former Speaker held at his abode  in Dagupan City.

Clad in a red, black, and white stripped polo shirt, De Venecia thanked Chinese corporate executive Chen and his son who came all the way from China, Christian Baverey and his wife renowned first runway model of the Philippines in France and the protégée of world’s fashion icons Yves St Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy’s Tetta Agustin, other foreign luminaries, and his constituents and supporters from the old Second District and the present Fourth District of Pangasinan.

4-Star Gen. and I Admire this Nonpareil Writer

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

During the 83^rd birthday of former five-time House of Representatives' Speaker Joe de Venecia attended by foreign and local high rollers and his supporters held at his coastal abode, I bumped into former Philippine National Police Chief and retired Four-Star General Art Lomibao.

“Sir, I’ve been reading about you in the old columns of Max Soliven like when you visited him in his hospital bed,” I told the former top honchos of the National Irrigation Administration and Land Transportation Office while we shook our hands.

“Send mo nga sa akin ang link,” the PMA Class of 1974 alumnus retorted.

I told him that I read the intrepid and prodigious columns of Soliven, 77, since first year college.
I first known his death in November 24, 2006 in Japan while I was airborne to Manila from Davao City after visiting my old folks in the southern island.

“Me too, we have mutual admiration (to his op-ed),” he answered me as Regional Examiner Editor Edwin Tandoc had a hard time taking our photo op with my android phone.

Author and former national police chief retired four-star general
 Art Lomibao during the recent 83rd birthday bash of former 
five-time House Speaker
Joe de Venecia.

“Edwin, give me my phone and I’ll do the “selfie” with the general,” I said.

By the way, Soliven was Speaker JDV professor in Ateneo de Manila when the latter was cutting his teeth for his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

Here are some of the excerpts of the June 29, 2006 article of Soliven on Lomibao:

“Even while still in hospital, I managed to confer with Police Director General and Police Chief Arturo C. Lomibao who came to visit me. Lomibao, who is retiring on July 5, his birthday, has done a crackerjack job – but he had only one year and four months in which to do it. Too few men. Too little resources. Not enough firearms. Too many rascals in the police force. What can even the most earnest, hardworking, courageous chief of police accomplish – when he’s already a lameduck on the very day he was appointed? I’ve argued – and this, too, quite often with the President herself – that a police chief must have three years in which to lead. It won’t happen. The next guy slated to take over will, if my calculations are correct, have only eleven months until he retire also – next year. The third in line just about a year and a half”.

Group cites excellent ties between South Korea, PH

SUAL, Pangasinan – A development-oriented group here hailed the move taken by the Senate which lauded South Korea for its important role in Philippine development and economic progress.

Sual Pro-Progress, an aggrupation of farmers, womenfolk, students, employees and professionals, described Resolution 159 recently passed by the Senate as “a fitting recognition of the strong excellent ties between the Philippines and South Korea.”

Authored by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, the resolution said that the bilateral relations between the two countries has been tested by history and is a relationship “forged in blood,” with more than 7,400 Filipino soldiers fighting alongside Korean troops during the Korean War.

Coal Power Plant.

 It “encompasses extensive cooperation in many fields, including trade and investments, infrastructure development, agriculture, tourism, scientific and technological cooperation, energy cooperation, rural development, health and sanitation, defense and security, disaster preparedness and climate change mitigation, and people-to-people exchanges.”

Agbayani, Family Will Not Seek Public Office in 2022

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN FABIAN, Pangasinan – The last term town mayor here said he would no longer seek another elective office like the vice mayoralty after his service ends in June 30, 2022.

Mayor Constante “Danny” Agbayani, 49, disclosed that he wants to rest after his nine years uninterrupted term when he defeated the wife of his godfather former mayor Mojamito Libunao in the 2013 mayoralty election here.

He said that even his wife or any of his children would not run for the mayoral election.

“Magpapahinga na ako pagkatapos ng term ko,” he told this writer and some guests mostly members of the legislative body of Mangaldan, Pangasinan at the party table in the 83^rd birthday of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia held at his coastal residence in Dagupan City.

GUESTS. San Fabian Mayor Danny Agbayani (second from left) Mangaldan Councilors lawer Joseph Emmanuel Cera (extreme left) and Mangaldan Liga President Rolly Abalos (standing), Mangaldan Vice Mayor Jojo Surdilla (second from right) and author (extreme right) during the 83^rd birthday celebration of former Five-Time House Speaker Joe de Venecia held at his coastal residence in Barangay Binloc, Dagupan City.

Agbayani was a reluctant candidate for the mayorship in the 2013 election after Libuano ended his nine years’ term and commissioned his wife Irene, a nurse, to succeed him.

 The spouses Libuano used to switch the mayoralty position to govern the town for almost two decade.

“I was the ABC president and I was hiding not to attend some meetings of the village chiefs because many of them wanted me to run for the mayorship but I was not interested,”  Agbayani, who was the president of the 34 villages’ town League of Barangays, said.

City, town police chiefs earn peanuts from gambling

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A chief of police (COP) of a large town reminisced the years when a COP could get P200, 000 to P400, 000 a month protection monies from the illegal number games’ jueteng lord.

“Maliit ang bigayan ngayon ng Peryahan ng Bayan sa amin, kuya,” he told me when I asked him how the number game played like jueteng PnB shares the sales with the COP.

Jueteng was illegal where most of the proceeds went to the pockets of the gambling lords, police brass, and politicians while Peryahan ng Bayan (PnB) is legal under the Duterte Administration where a bulk of its revenues go to the coffer of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to help the destitute.

Officers and men of the Philippine National Police. Photo Credit: Official Gazette.

A high official, who asked for anonymity, of the PCSO franchised Small Town Lottery (STL) who is based in Southern Luzon told this writer that chiefs of police felt sorry now because they get only a pittance monthly from the share of the PnB’s daily revenues.

“It’s only the (police) provincial and regional police directors who earned big monthly from PnB while the chiefs earned peanuts”.

He said if the collection of bet monies a day in a big city is P500, 000, the COP gets .5%  (or point five percent) or P2,500 a day or P75, 000 a month.

He explained this monthly amount is not hefty because the COP has to feed the daily meals of his policemen that numbered into hundreds.

“Noong panahon ng jueteng magkano ang kita ng chief of police sa siyudad na ito?” I asked him.

He said between P400, 000 to P450, 000 monthly.

DepEd Supt. Showers Staff with Party, Cash Gifts

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The 270 personnel of the Department of Education here have been treated recently with a party and various dole outs like food and cash gifts by their superior during their super heroes garbed yuletide party.

Pangasinan-1 School Division Superintendent Maria Sheila Angeles Primicias said that aside from the cash prices given to the departments that won the various contests like dance held at the third floor of the function hall of the Division Office, all of the 270 staff were given pro rata dole outs and cash gifts.

BRASS. Pangasinan-1 School Division Superintendent Maria Sheila A. Primicias exhorts the 270 personnel of the Central and Western Pangasinan covered division office of the Department of Education. Primicias handles 15, 000 strong mentors from Calasiao and several towns to the far-flung island town of Anda, Pangasinan.

“Meron tayong 25 kilos na bigas sa lahat ng ating mga personnel. There are about 270 personnel natin. Meron silang bigas meron silang grocery of course meron tig-isang (roasted) manok and meron silang (inaudible) at P500 kada isa pare-pareho iyan walang pinili,” Primicias, who was elegantly dressed in blue and red Superwoman attire, told this writer last Friday morning during the Christmas hoopla.

Primicias, who assumed office in the 15,000 strong teachers’ Pangasinan-1 Division late this year, came from the City Division Office of San Carlos City.

“Ginawa ko rin iyan sa San Carlos,” Primicias said about her generosity she showed to her subordinate in the central Pangasinan city.

Cornucopia of gifts.

READ: 

All Public Schools in San Carlos City ISO Certified

SLOPE PROTECTION

 Pangasinan Fourth District Rep. Christopher de Venecia, joined by District Engr. Edita Manuel of the Second Pangasinan Engineering District, inspects the slope protection project along Tambac River in Dagupan City on Dec. 13. It aims to mitigate flooding in the area. The other photo shows De Venecia talking to the residents about the project.

Acting P'gasinan BIR Chief Sees P2.3-B Goal Next Year

OPTIMISTIC TO HIT P1.856-B GOAL THIS YEAR

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY – The acting Revenue District Office No. 6 Chief of The Bureau of Internal Revenue in eastern Pangasinan will have a collection goal of P2.3 billion this coming year as she is optimistic to attain the almost P2 billion tax target this year.

Assistant RDO Chief Lolita Salayog said that based on the customary 20% to 25% addition to the present tax goal of P1.856 Billion, the next year’s target will probably be P2.3 billion.

“It is based on the Gross Domestic Product of the area of 20% to 25%,” she cited after she computed the projected goal next year.

The target is given first quarter of the year by the BIR commissioner in Quezon City to all revenue district offices all over the country.

Despite the P98 million deficit as December 31 this year approaches, Salayog is positive to eclipse the almost P2 billion goal for 2019.

TAX HONCHOS  Top executives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Northern Luzon pose for posterity with the tax agency’s commissioner Caesar Dulay (second from left) in a social function. From left Ilocos Sur Revenue District Office No. 2 Chief Trina Villamil, Dulay, Tarlac RDO No. 17-B Ma. Bernadette Mangaoang, La Union RDO No. 3 Chief Chum C. dela Torre, and Urdaneta City Assistant RDO No. 6 Chief Lolita Salayog.

“As of December 16, 2019 we have a shortfall of 5.28% or P98 billion to chalk – up. I am positive (to hit it) because mahirap magsalita ng negative,” she told this writer with a chuckle.

In the early months of this year Salayog and then RDO-6 Chief Cecilia Campos were frantic to collect the target because the 15 towns and one city RDO had collected a lot of Capital Gain and Documentary Taxes on the residents of the district who sold their lands through expropriations for the right of way of the Tarlac-Pangasinan- La Union Expressway (TPLEX) by the Private Infra Development Corporation.

Cabinet Sec as Santa Claus to Reporters

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I thought the portly, jolly, white bearded Saint Nicholas, er, Santa Claus and his flying reindeers full of gifts pulling sleigh came directly from North Pole to my province's Pangasinan but instead he came garb in a U.S edition Levis Strauss Jeans, black leather belt, and blue and white striped polo long sleeves with varied sizes gifts probably carried by pickup or in one of the SUVs he brought.

The name of Mr. Claus is Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar. He came in this politically acrimonious but gargantuan vote - rich province and treated its likewise rambunctious media men (just read their Facebooks how members exposed each other payolas on the Perya te-he!) with sumptuous lunch last Sunday at the iconic Dagupeña Restaurant and thrilled them with a generous raffle of yuletide dole outs of rice cookers, iron, industrial electric fans, and television sets.

GIFTS. Pangasinan media men during their Christmas engagement last Sunday with  Presidential Communications Operations Office  Secretary Martin Andanar held at the Dagupeña Restaurant . Members of the Fourth Estate in the mammoth province relished the party as each one of them went home with gifts from the secretary.

“Since time immemorial I became a media man you are the only high ranking government official who gave gifts like these stuffs,” I told in Cebuano vernacular the six - footer Cagayan de Oro resident Andanar in a huddle.

“Tinuod ka bay (Are you sure my friend)?” he quipped.

I even won an iron and a rice cooker.

“I was already surprised about your generosity with those cash gifts last year's Christmas you gave the members of the Fourth Estate here. Media colleagues told me about them,” I added.

Penalized Operators of SM Grumble to BIR

SAY TAX MAN LENIENT IN OTHER PROVINCES

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – Some of the penalized stall and kiosk owners of the newly opened SM Center Dagupan grumbled to the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Pangasinan that in other places in the country they were allowed to operate unregistered and fine-free for two months, according to the top executive of the tax agency.

“Sabi nila bakit sa ibang lugar hinde sila pina fine pero dito sa Pangasinan minumultahan kaagad sila, “according to Assistant Revenue District Office (RDO) No. 4 Chief Aldrin A. Camba.

The beleaguered SM Center -Dagupan. (Photo Credit: SM Super Malls)

He explained to them that he and RDO Chief Ernesto I. Mangabat could not be lenient on them in the province because this newspaper’s writer reported their violation.

“Sinabi namin ni RDO na kailangan e tax mapping namin kasi media man iyong nag report ng violation”.

Before they could do their mapping they asked first Region-1 Director Thelma S. Milabao for a mission order.

The tax mapping led by Supervisor Cherry Wong ensued three weeks after the mall’s opened in October 4 this year after a lawyer, who asked for anonymity, reported to this newspaper that an attendant of a milk tea store did not issue an invoice sanctioned by the BIR because it did not have it yet.
The lawyer said he reported this incident to two BIR officials but they did not inform Camba and Mangabat.
“As a lawyer a business could not open without an official receipt,” he said.

Camba cited that a group of BIR personnel based here and led by Wong combed the two-floor’s SM Center Dagupan.
A source cited that it has more than 70 stalls and kiosks there.

Revenue District Office No. 4 Chief Mangabat said that after a notice or two, those recalcitrant stall and kiosk owners at SM-Dagupan who did not register will be sued by the BIR.

 Mangabat exhorted those penalized leasees to register to avoid legal action.

“Oo kasi kung alam natin na magbabayad ngayon okay na iyan. Pero dapat magpa register na. Pero despite of our effort na demand the payment and for registration hindi pa rin gumagalaw, iyon na ipo forward na namin iyong case sa legal namin,” he told this writer.

Several of the owners told ARDO Chief Camba that they were forced to open because the management of SM-Dagupan threatened them to be penalized.

“Hinde nila inexpect na mag oopen kaagad.  Ang alam nila parang matagal pa. So sila iyong mga business establishments relax muna sila. Nagpu process lang pero hinde pa iyong talaga full processing. E biglang sinabi ng SM mag oopen na tayo ganitong date. Kung hinde kayo makikiano kayo sa amin sa opening mape-penalty kayo,” he quoted one of the operators there who came to his office to explain his infraction.

The threat from SM could not be a reason for the unregistered stall owners to acquisce because they violated the tax law of the country, Camba declared.

Mangabat said that failure to register of an owner will be meted a P20,000 fine if the store is located in the city, P10,000 and lower if they are located in a second class and lower class towns.

Those penalties are provided by the National Internal Revenue Code says that  “Any person who, being required under Section 237 to issue receipts or sales or commercial invoices, fails or refuses to issue such receipts of invoices, issues receipts or invoices that do not truly reflect and/or contain all the information required to be shown therein, or uses multiple or double receipts or invoices, shall, upon conviction for each act or omission, be punished by a fine of not less than One thousand pesos (P1,000) but not more than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000) and suffer imprisonment of not less than two (2) years but not more than four (4) years”.

READ:

TV5 Camera man warns of alleged sale modus of SM

Who is this Corrupt Cabinet Secretary?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Although I am not an avid fan of Irish rock band U2’s front man Bono or Paul David Hewson (I’d rather watch Australian AC-DC and Angus Young do his duck walks, te-he), I liked his activism.

Bono, who loves to garb in shades, white tees and faded jeans, had been seen in the past rubbing elbows in official ceremonies with then U.S Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama, then Brazil President Lula ad Silva, then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, philanthropist, and then South African President Nelson Mandela.

This what he told recently the thousands of cheering Flips, er, Filipinos inside the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.

“Also in our prayers, let's keep the journalists, the truth-tellers, the activists who keep this country spiritually safe. We salute you, truth-tellers, everyday heroes, we see your lights, we see the stars, the Manila sky," he said as the band played the opening chords of David Bowie's "Heroes."

Pugaro Document Can Be On Various Forms - LRA

              AS PROMISED BY LAND DONORS’ LAWYER

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The document that the lawyer of the donors of the controversial land that will be given to the local government unit (LGU) here can be on various forms, according to an official of the Land Registration Authority.

Lawyer Rufino A. Moreno, the chief of the Register of Deeds here, said that comes January 8, 2020 lawyer Frank Angeles will submit either the Approved Subdivision Survey Plan or The Notarized Request of Partition by the donor spouses Manuel and Ma. Eleanor Pablico and their heirs. The donation created a hullabaloo after one of the six illegal settlers of the 50, 000 square meters land told the administration of this city’s mayor Brian Lim that the real property where the 7,000 Sq. m was donated to the LGU here was mortgaged to a bank in 2016.

LIEN . P8.388 Million encumbrance on the land of the Pablico's heirs by the Land Bank of the Philippines as seen on their Transfer Certificate of Title furnished by the Register of Deeds on this newspaper.

“It is not the TCT (Transfer Certificate of Title) because the donors will have to file a subdivision plan of the (50,000 sq.m) land to either the Bureau of Land or the Management Service in San Fernando City in La Union or Land Registration Authority in Quezon City,” Moreno told this writer when the latter asked him if the one to be presented to the public by the lawyer will be a TCT.

Any of the document furnishes by Angeles will show that the donors’ Ma. Eleanor, Archirald, Allan, Arnold, and Artemio Pablico were in good faith when they entered into a transcation with the LGU here, Moreno added.
Moreno told this writer that it was the first time he heard about this brouhaha spawned by the settler at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council) located just in the second floor from the ground floor where the office of the Register of Deeds is located.
"Nobody came here to ask for a copy of the TCT," he said on the encumbrance of the bank to the land of the Pablicos as written at the back  of the TCT.

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Look at the weaponry of the AH-1S (Tzefa or Hebrew’s for Viper) modernized two attack helicopters donated to us by the Kingdom of Jordan.

The Cobra is armed with 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon ,  Hydra 70 rockets, AIM-9 Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, and BGM-71 TOW tube launched, optically tracked, wire guided U.S made anti-tank missiles. 

Since our third hand AH-1S will not be pitted with tanks, just like in the warfare she participated in the 1972 Battle of An Lộc, the capital of Bình Phước Province, Vietnam where many of them were shot down by Soviet and Chinese made anti-aircraft artillery batteries and missiles, but with communist and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) backed up guerrillas armed with light automatic weapons, her M-197 20mm Gatling gun, unguided air-to-ground Hydra 70 rocket will see action complemented with her agility and maximum speed of 149 knots (172 mph, 277 km/h), range of 315 miles or 510 kilometers, and rate of climb of 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s). 
Indeed, she will be the scourged of those bad guys I mentioned.

The  tube (extreme left) where the  Hydra 70 Rockets are located and the 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon at the swiveling ventral gun turret at the front belly of the Cobra Attack Helicopter.

When will the mettle of these Cobras be tested? Will it be in Samar where many cops and soldiers have been ambushed and killed by the commies there? Will it be in Negros Occidental where my police Lt. Colonel friend Ryan Manongdo, a PNPyer and a Pangasinense, has been passionate to “indoctrinate” the Reds through his brainchild’s ELCAC or Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict? or in Basilan or Jolo Sulu where the Tausogs have been fighting the soldiers since time immemorial where the Bell Hueys (the sister utility chopper of Bell Cobra) timely saved hundreds of Marines’ lives for the meat grinder in the November 1972 Battle of Sibalu Hill there (READ HERE)?

Ex-Mayor, Lawyer Assure Public Donated Land Lien-Free

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY -  This city former mayor and a lawyer of the land donors assured the public that the 7,000 square meters given to the local government unit (LGU) here is free of future encumbrance from the bank.

Ex –mayor Belen T. Fernandez said despite the credit line of the heirs of Manuel and Maria Eleanor Pablico at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) they will not allow the 7000 Sq. m they donated to the city prejudiced.

“The P8 million or P9 milion versus the P50 million at nanininwala ako kasi may usapan naman na sila ang mag sesegrate noong lupa. Hindi naman tayo iyon sila iyan. At naniniwala ako na gagawin nila iyon,” she told reporters recently in a cable television program.

In year 2017, Pablico spouses heirs’ Ma. Eleanor, Archirald, Allan, Arnold, and Artemio, residents of 797 Edsa Diliman, Quezon City, donated the lot at Barangay Pugaro here and was accepted by Fernandez after it was endorsed to her by a resolution passed by the majority members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) (City Council).

DEED. In a 2017 file photo then Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez proudly showed the Deed of Donation of 7,000 square meters of real property given by the heirs of Pablico spouses through their lawyer Frank Angeles (center) for the city government and the six illegal settlers in  the island Barangay Pugaro of the city. 

“Whereas, that the said donors, as an act of liberality on their part, by these presents, hereby cede, transfer, and convey by way of donation unto the said donee, Lot Nos. 1-C, 1-E, and 1-F as above described consisting of a total area of 7,000 square meters, together with all the buildings and improvements existing thereon, free and clear of all liens and encumbrances…,” the donors declared on their Deed of Donation.

Hog raisers recovering after buying prices stabilized

AFTER THE ASF SCARE

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ROSALES – Swine farmers in Pangasinan have been recovering on their financial losses due to the scare brought by the African Swine Fever (ASF).

 Samahan ng Industriyang Agrikultura (Sinag) Chairman Rosendo So said the buying prices of the hog stabilized with the live weight hover from P110 to P115 per kilo.

“Dito tumaas na, nasa P110 to P115. Bumalik na sa normal price,” he said.

The Sinag chair cited that stakeholders in Pangasinan like Sinag, Abono Partylist, hog raisers, and others joined hand in isolating the mammoth province on the possible entries of the cloven hoof animals from the affected provinces.

ASF FREE. Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar (stripe polo shirt) is flanked by Samahan ng Industriyang Agrikultura (Sinag) Chairman Rosendo So and Deputy House Speaker and Abono Party-list Representative Conrad Estrella during the pork boodle fight in a public gymnasium at Rosales, Pangasinan to show to all and sundry that there is no African Swine Fever in the huge province. Photo Credit: Rosendo So

“Sa far dito kasi  sa atin ni isolate natin na wala ng puweding pumasok”.

In October this year Agriculture Secretary William Dar declared that affected areas of ASF reached to 22 that included the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga and Rizal and Quezon City.

The first case of ASF in Pangasinan was found in the same month in Barangay Apalen, Bayambang when 30 hogs were confirmed to have died of African Swine Fever.

Mayor Calugay acts to save Sual’s aquaculture industry

SUAL, Pangasinan – The municipal government here headed by Mayor Liseldo “Dong” Calugay is taking steps to prevent the town’s aquaculture industry from suffering the same fate that befell fish farms in the municipalities of Anda and Bolinao that had been hit by massive fish kills in the past.

Noting that fish cages have proliferated beyond what is allowed under the Sual Fisheries Code of 2018 (Ordinance No. 02-2018), Mayor Calugay issued Executive Order No. 20 which calls for an “open, competitive and transparent selection process for the application and renewal of operation of fish cages in the mariculture zone of the municipal waters of Sual.”

Hundreds of fish cages occupy Sual’s municipal waters

“In the interest of public and common good, there is need to institute a protocol where all existing operators and applicants for permit to construct and operate fish cages shall comply with the provisions of Sual Fisheries Code of 2018 and relevant national laws and regulations,” Mayor Calugay said in his directive.

Thanks Jordan, But Those Cobras Are Not The Deadliest

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Several reporters of national dailies, bloggers, and social media members mistakenly dubbed the two AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters donated by Jordan to the Philippines, as “One of the world’s most lethal combat helicopters”.

Those Messengers of Death for the commies' New People’s Army and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) backed guerrillas arrived last November 26 at the former U.S Clark Air Base in Pampanga. 

Since these late variant of attack helicopters, armed with 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon , Mk 40 rockets, AIM-9 Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, and others, were mass produced in 1967 they are not considered deadly compared to the armaments, radar, and armor of the Top 9 Powerful Attack Helicopters in the world today.

Here are their rankings according to military.com.today:

1.       Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian (USA); 2. Bell AH-1Z Viper (USA); 3. Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B (Russia); 4. Mil Mi-28 Havoc (Russia); 5.Eurocopter Tiger (France/Germany); 6.  Z-10 (China); 7.  Denel AH-2 Rooivalk (South Africa); 8. Augusta A129 Mangusta (Italy); 9.  Mil Mi-24 Hind (Russia).

AH-1F Cobra. Photo Credit: aircav.com

In the hardbound book’s Apache Dawn by Damien Lewis that I gave to my classmate, farmers’ leader, and my avid listener about military science since elementary days in Mindanao Farmer Joe Ontoy Fabila despite me reading only several pages there, the author crowed that aside from being piloted by British Warrant Officers (geez man, they are not officers like lieutenants or captains), Lewis wrote that the AH-64 Apache could still fly back to the base despite its one of the two turbo shaft T700 –GE70IC engines (the Brits used the powerful Rolls Royce Engines) being hit by anti –aircraft gun, its heavily armored plated side and underbelly, night vision capability, Longbow Hell Fire Modular Missiles System, Long Bow Fire Control Radar – Mast Mounted System and a powerful camera that could enhance with high resolution the I.D of a person thousands of miles above, and infrared jammer where a Taliban guerilla could not ring his cellular phone to trigger the explosion of a bomb where the British military convoy pass over it.

Enough said for the Apache!

Although the older expensive to maintain Cobra is not at the Top 9 or probably Top 15 attack gunships (there is T129 ATAK (a consortium of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and AgustaWestland Leonardo), being offered by Turkey to us Flips, er Filipinos), the AH-1S choppers are the first dedicated attacked helicopters in the Philippine military inventory.

When I was growing up with my air force father during the Muslim Wars in the early 1980s in the rough and tumbled Mindanao, he sometimes brought me to the combat ready Awang Air Base in Dinaig, Maguindanao. In one of my visits, I saw there up close and personal those smaller slick but limited capacity McDonnel Douglas or MD-520 Light Attack Helicopter our air force pilots flown and used to machine gun and rocket those bad guys in Liguasan Marsh, Lebak, Maguindano, and even the commies lairs in the Makilala, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur's mountain areas.

 The two Cobras given to our air force originally came from the marquee Israeli Air Force ((IAF) it called as the "Tzefa" (Hebrew’s for Viper). The Tzefas had been used by the IAF against the Palestinian guerrillas and other enemies in Lebanon in the middle of the 1970s. That country, composed of Christians, Muslims, and other tribes, had been Israel's most active front where IAF’s Cobras showed their mettle for more than 20 years.

They, according to Wikipidea, were also used widely by the Israeli Air Force in the 1982 Lebanon War to destroy Syrian armor and fortification. These AH-1S ruined dozens of Syrian ground vehicles. They were also used in major operations against Hezbollah in Operations "Accountability" and  "Grapes of Wrath" in southern Lebanon.

IAF retired its fleet of 33 AH-1S Cobras in late 2013 due to budget cuts. The older one engine’s Cobras’ role was taken up entirely by the squadrons of Israeli’s U.S made AH-64 Apache helicopters, and the fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. 
Aside from some of those pilot errors and mechanical failures’ fatal crashes, the AH-1S were more expensive to maintain than UAVs. Moreover, they were exposed to attacks from man-portable air-defense systems (MPADS) operated by guerrilla groups

Thanks God, the NPA and the ISIS linked guerrillas are not yet operating those deadly MPADS just like those backward garb Taliban guerillas shooting down with gusto their heat seeking Yankee made Stingers Soviet’s jets and helicopters in the late 1980s.

In early 2010, I interviewed former Philippines Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane on the plan of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to buy a squadron (12 choppers) of Cobras from the Israelis who want to replace them with the advanced Apaches.

He told me the downside: The Americans would not allow all stock, lock and barrel of the Cobra for us to enjoy.
“The U.S government would not allow giving us the Cobra’s missile system. Besides, it’s very expensive, we could buy lots of helicopters for one brand new Cobra,” he stressed.
I should have protested that what the Jews sell us is their second-hand stuff – just like the ukay-ukay at the kanto. But somebody called the former four-star general thus my supposed interjection turns to pffft,” I wrote then at my blog.

 In late 2014, IAF transferred 16 Cobras, of course with the nod of Uncles Sam, to the Royal Jordanian Air Force to add to their existing fleet for border security in response to threats posed by Islamic State militants or other insurgent groups.

Originally, the Amman Government offered to provide four surplus of these former Tzefas to the Philippines but it was reduced to two units, which the Philippine government accepted after its pilots and personnel trained to fly them in Jordan.

The AH-1S series undergone a three-step program, according to globalsecurity.org, to upgrade all existing AH-1G/AH-1Q/AH-1R Cobras to an advanced Modernized version.

For brevity purposes, after the Steps 1 and 2 modifications of the AH-1S that started in 1977 and 1978, the Step 3 of the program, totaled 530 aircraft, and were completed between November 1979 and June 1981. Of 530 Modernized Cobras, 387 were converted from old AH-1G Cobras and 143 were new production aircraft. The Modernized Cobra featured a new fire control system with a pilot's M76 Head-Up Display (HUD), M136 Helmet Sight Subsystem (HSS), laser rangefinder and tracker, and M26 Fire Control Computer (FCC). The modernization program also added an M143 Air Data Subsystem (ADS). The installation of the M147 Rocket Management Subsystem (RMS) permitted the use of the standard 2.75-inch rocket system, in addition to the M65 TOW anti-tank missiles and the M197 20mm gun on the new M97A2 universal turret. The Modernized AH-1S could mount M158 seven-tube, M200 19-tube, M260 seven-tube, or M261 19-tube rocket launchers. The advanced Cobra had an infrared jammer mounted on the top of the engine fairing and a hot metal plus plume infrared suppressor extending from the back of the engine. The Modernized AH-1S could be identified by the air data sensor mounted above the right side of the canopy. The AH-1S Modernized Cobra was ultimately re-designated as the AH-1F Cobra.

The wisdom on the creation of an attack helicopter that resulted to the inception of the Cobras ensued during the Vietnam War.  The Yanks, who were fighting the Russian and Chinese wielding AK-47 assault rifles Vietcongs and North Vietnamese soldiers, needed an attack - chopper to escort their helicopters bearing troops like as they came down in a landing zone. By 1962 a small number of AH-1As, armed with machine guns and rockets, closely escort the transport helicopters and loiter over the landing zone as the battle progressed.

By June 1967, the first AH-1G Huey Cobras from the war churning Bell factory in the U.S had been delivered to the U.S military.

AH-1 Cobras were in use by the Army during the Tet offensive in 1968 and through to the end of the Vietnam War. They also formed "hunter killer" teams by pairing with that miniscule bee liked, son of a gun, Hughes OH-6 Cayuse light observation choppers (the precursor of the MD-520 although from different company) that my father regaled me when I was a kid. Example: An OH-6 flying slow and low to find enemy forces but drew fire from the enemies, the Cobra could strike at the then exposed bad guys' location. Ginawang pa-in anak ng baka iyong OH-6, kawawa naman iyong mga pilots nila ha ha ha!

 Out of the nearly 1,110 AH-1S delivered from 1967 to 1973 in the Vietnam War approximately 300 were lost to combat and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps used AH-1G Cobras in Vietnam for a short time before acquiring twin-engine AH-1J Cobras.

Other wars Cobras participated:

    1)      AH-1T Cobras were deployed for Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Flying close-support and helicopter escort missions, two of the four available were lost to anti-aircraft fire while attacking Fort Frederick.

  2) Army Cobras participated in Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

              3)      During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the Gulf War (1990–91), the Cobras and Super Cobras deployed in a support role. Three AH-1s were lost in accidents during fighting and afterward. Cobras destroyed many Iraqi armored vehicles and various targets in the fighting.

     4)      Army Cobras provided support for the US humanitarian intervention during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993.

 5) They were also employed during the US invasion of Haiti in 1994.

The U.S. Army, according to Wikipedia, phased out the AH-1 during the 1990s and retired them from active service in March 1999, offering them to NATO allies. The Army retired the AH-1 from reserves in September 2001. The retired gunships have been passed to other nations and to the USDA Forest Service. The AH-1 continues to be in service with the US Marine Corps, which operate the twin-engine AH-1W Super Cobra and AH-1Z Viper.

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(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)