When Military Officers Wear Hod Instead of the Epaulet

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

After reading yesterday the post at social media's Facebook of former Army spokesman and present Chief of the Army's Operation Research Center Col. Harold Cabunoc decrying biased reporting of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by getting the sides only of those Commies' NPA supporters, I read this early morning Inquirer's going hammer and tongs against the outspoken PMAier from neighboring Bukidnon (this journalist is still lock downed in Cotabato).

I was amused by those pro-Commies and probably plain kibitzers like this U.S based guy Tony Alegre describing those Philippine Military Academy's alumni training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas as lousy.

Excerpt of Tony's post: "I hosted numbers of PMA exchange soldiers at Sheppard AFB, Texas and dunno where those poor things got their commissions they are more fit to carry the hod than their epaulets!"

 EPAULET VS HOD. An American military officer (left photo) in the Civil War wearing an epaulet while a construction worker (right), probably a Filipino in the Middle East, carries on his shoulder a hod. (Photos are internet grabbed)

After I read this sentence, I paused and told myself: I know the EPAULET since I read that on hardbound books about the military I bought at Book Sale like those thick autobiography of U.S Joint Chief of Staff Four-Star General Colin Powel titled: My American Journey. Some of the excerpts of his book I even quoted at my blogs.

Epaulet means, those books described, as the ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. In the French and other armies, big epaulets are also worn by all ranks of elite or ceremonial units when on parade.
 "But what is this three words' hod?" I asked myself. This could not be the "hood" of the Niggers, er, Blacks because it is about "neighborhood" and it does not jibe with epaulet. 
When I Google Search the meaning of HOD, I could not still appreciate its meaning since its talked about a construction material. So every time this wannabe columnist wanted to decipher the meaning of the word, he clicked Google's options if the reader wanted it to get what a word means on "All", "IMAGES" "VIDEOS", "MAPS", OTHERS.

He clicked "IMAGES" and he was damn amused by this guy Alegre comparison of a "Toy Soldier" or "Sundalong Kanin (Sissy)" (of course I disagreed about PMAers being painted by him as Sundalong Kanin, mga chaplains, doctors, engineers iyong mga taga Signal sa AFP at mga SOCO sa PNP puwede pa hahaha! ).

To understand what is a hod, see the illustration above of Epaulet in Photo 1 and Hod in Photo 2. Hahaha I could not stop chortling before my laptop even at this moment susmariosep about this comparison and by seeing officer wearing the much maligned hod at their shoulders in military occasion.

***

I copy and pasted below the exchanges of Cabunoc and the Philippines Daily Inquirer, and you be the judge who was wrong who was correct:

PROPAGANDISTA KA BA NG NPA?

By Harold Cabanoc

Minsan di ko mapigilan na magpapakita ng inis sa FB.

At di kita palalampasin Gabriel Pabico-Lalu ng Philippine Daily Inquirer!

Bakit di mo magawang ibalanse ang ginagawang istorya sa peryodiko? Sa mga komunista mo lang din kinuha ang isinawalat mong fake news na "critikal" yang si Jolina Meraya alyas Jolina Calot ng League of Filipino Students! Nasaan ang side ng Army dyan?

Me critical condition talagang nakangiti pa? Ganern?

Parehas lang sa istorya ng mga komunista sa akin na minasaker ko ang tribo sa Lake Sebu! Kahit pakitaan mo ng lahat ng ebidensya, talagang ginagawan ng anggulo para maging masama ang imahe ng sundalo eh nagkamatayan na nga ang tropa ng 27IB sa naturang engkwentro, masaker ang mga pinalabas na kwento na pinaabot sa CHR at UN Human Rights Council!

Sa mga kaganapang ito, wag tayong manahimik. Ilabas natin ang side ng ating istorya. Ilabas ang katotohanan na ginagamit nina Joma Sison ang kabataan sa pamamagitan ng front organizations para i-radicalize at pasampahin sa NPA! Iilang bata pa ba ang mamamatay sa bakbakan para mahimasmasan tayong lahat na merong mga taong sadyang naglason sa kanilang isipan?

Dahil dyan, ang mga komunista ang dahilan kung bakit nakakapatay o nakakapanakit kami ng mga estudyanteng ginawa nilang hukbo sa NPA! Di kami nagbubunyi na makakapatay ng kabataan na tila mga anak namin ang mga edad!

Juicecolored naman! I-correct mo ba yang kasinungalingan na naisulat mo Gabriel Pabico-Lalu?

NUJP Calls Out Army Officer Over FB Post vs Inquirer Reporter

By Consuelo Marquez, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has called out an Army officer over his social media post against INQUIRER.net reporter Gabriel Pabico Lalu, who wrote an article about a statement of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) regarding a military operation in Palapag, Northern Samar.

For its part, INQUIRER.net expressed concern as well on the issue and will refer the matter to its legal staff.
Here is NUJP’s full statement released Saturday, June 27:
[Alert] Army colonel accuses reporter of ‘fake news’, asks if he is NPA ‘propagandist’
A ranking Army officer has accused a reporter of online news outfit INQUIRER.net of writing “fake news” and asked if he was a New People’s Army “propagandist.”
In a public Facebook post entitled “Propagandista ka ba ng NPA?”, Colonel Harold Cabunoc addressed Gabriel Pabico Lalu and said “Di kita palalampasin (I will not let you off).”
“Bakit di mo magawang ibalanse ang ginagawang istorya sa peryodiko? Sa mga komunista mo lang din kinuha ang isinawalat mong fake news na ‘critikal’ (sic) yang si Jolina Meraya alyas Jolina Calot ng League of Filipino Students! Nasaan ang side ng Army dyan?” Cabunoc wrote. He also asked: “I-correct mo ba yang kasinungalingan na naisulat mo Gabriel Pabico-Lalu?”
Cabunoc had taken exception to a June 27 article bylined by Lalu, “CHR slams alleged gov’t penchant for red-tagging after farmer’s slay,” in which the reporter quoted statements from Commission on Human Rights spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia and the human rights group Hustisya on the deaths of what the military said was a ranking NPA leader and his aide during a clash in Palapag, Northern Samar on June 20.
On June 21, the Inquirer carried a story on the clash exclusively carrying the military’s side on the deaths of Zalday Meraya, an alleged rebel finance officer, and Bebe Tobino. (Suspected NPA leader, aide, killed in Northern Samar firefight)
Contrary to Cabunoc’s claim that the Army’s side was not included in his story, Lalu did cite the military’s version. However, this was a follow-up that was about the CHR and Hustisya’s take on the June 20 incident.
These are the pertinent excerpts from Lalu’s article:
“CHR’s statement came after suspected NPA leader Zalday Meraya and his aide were killed in a supposed firefight with agents of the Philippine Army’s 20th Infantry Battalion in Palapag, Northern Samar on Saturday.”
“Authorities said that Meraya was the finance officer of SRC Arctic — an armed group that allegedly extorts money and targets government projects in Northern Samar’s coastal towns.”
In the article, De Guia was quoted as speaking out against “The state’s haphazard labeling of individuals as affiliated to communist or leftist terrorist groups (which) directly threatens the lives or safety of individuals” and also saying the CHR would conduct its own investigation into the incident following reports members of Meraya’s family, including his daughter Jolina Calot, a student at the University of Eastern Philippines and member of progressive group League of Filipino Students, had been wounded.
Hustisya, for its part, accused the military of firing at the home of Meraya.
The CHR and human rights are among Lalu’s beats.
Cabunoc is not the first military official to openly hint at journalists’ supposed rebel links or sympathies.
Government officials, including state security forces, have long been openly tagging, without presenting proof, critical media organizations and journalists as “legal fronts” or sympathizers of the communist rebel movement.
This practice of red-tagging has proven to have dangerous, even fatal, consequences for targeted individuals, especially members of legal activist groups.
(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pahngasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)