Ph should Use C-130 thru GPES at Ayungin

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza         

I saw a provoking part of the video where personnel of the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) and members of the Philippines’ Naval Special Operations Group (NAVSOG) - the version of the U.S elite Navy SEAL – clad on their usual camouflage, body bullet proof vest and Kevlar helmet sans wielding assault rifles in a fracas and melee at the sea of the Second Ayungin Shoal near the Philippines decrepit and snagged naval BRP Sierra Madre – the country’s outpost and beleaguered symbol of the ownership of the Shoal.

RESUPPLY MISSION. (Top photo and clockwise) An almost 20 –ton payload carrying C-130 Hercules makes a Low-Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES) supply drop at Jo Ju Air Strip during the joint Korean-U.S Military Exercise. (Wikipedia); Two personnel of the Chinese Coast Guard (with red circle) brandished an ax and a knife to members of the Philippines’ Naval Special Operations Group (NAVSOG) - the version of the U.S elite Navy SEAL; the melee between a cornered Philippines rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) and Chinese boats where shoving, pushing, fisticuff, throwing of stones, puncturing of the RHIB of the Filipinos, destruction of their navigational equipment and confiscation of their eight firearms in a cache by the Chinese ensued.

In a video given by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to social media’s like History Channel Philippines at Facebook three days after the rumpus ensued at the morning of June 17, you can see two rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) surrounded by countless CCG RHIBS, wooded boat, and steel vessel where some of their personnel threatened with ax, machetes (they called that here in the Flipland, err, Filipino land as bolos), and knives the NAVSOG. Our Navy SEAL – supposed to be honed on reconnaissance, close combat, demolition, intelligence and underwater operations –where no match to the aggressors as one of them was seen using a fish hook retrieved from the Philippines military vessel a huge backpack – probably one of the bags that contained eight of the disassembled firearms the Filipinos carried.

AFP Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner, Jr. told reporters last June 19 that two of the Philippines RHIBs were surrounded by eight RHIBS and other boats of the Chinese.

I saw there too how two CCG men yelled and threatened while brandishing and waiving their ax and knives to the NAVSOG while on the other rubber boat and steel hulled vessel, the Chinese onboard bullied with knife and machete the outnumbered Filipinos and another Chinese used military grade laser to blind the navy personnel at the bigger ship who were taking videos. The Filipinos contented themselves by dousing water probably from a pail, susmariosep! Where are our water cannons?

 The water in the pail should contain some human feces to make the donnybrook and scuffle at least equal with those bellicose enemies.

 Why not our navy puncture if not ram the Chinese obstructing rubber vessels with our bigger Navy ship? Remember one of the SEAL guys had his right thumb chopped off after the Chinese hit it with their boat. Brawner – who used to be our cadet at the Philippines Military Academy when I was with the public information office there in the late 1980s - told media men that the LS-57 and its crew were armed to the teeth but did not want to escalate the melee because the Philippines avoids a full blown war.

The video showed too some Chinese and Filipinos threw hard objects against each other while someone from the navy ship shouted they were throwing rocks against each other.

The video corroborated the AFP Chief statement that the Chinese punctured the rubber boats of the Filipinos with the spear/hook and knives.

Brawner said there were fisticuffs, shoving and pushing when the Chinese boarded the Filipinos RHIB.

“Despite this lumaban po ang ating sundalo lumaban in (sic) their bare hands. Makikita ninyo tinutulak nila iyong wave ng Chinese Coast Guard pataas o palayo. They were preventing the Chinese from hitting them with their bolos their machetes and other bladed weapons. Kaya ako po ay hanga sa ating mga sundalo despite the absence of weapons or certain items to defend themselves ay lumalaban pa rin sila (Despite the lack of weapons the Filipinos fought with their bare hands the Chinese. You can see how they pushed away outside their vessels the men of the Chinese Coast Guard. They were preventing the Chinese from hitting them with their bolos their machetes and other bladed weapons. I was awed by the intrepidity of our soldiers despite the absence of weapons or certain items to defend themselves they still fought with the enemies),” Brawner told reporters at a press conference in Manila he called two days after the brouhaha in June 17.

Aside from taking the weapons of the AFP, the Chinese have the audacity to take the mobile phones, destroy the navigation equipment and engines of the Philippines vessels, and deflated them through their sharp weapons.

“We are demanding that the Chinese return our rifles and our equipment. We are also demanding from them to pay for the damages that they have caused. Babayaran nila iyong dahil hindi tayo papayag na basta na lang sisirain nila iyong ating kagamitan at kunin na lang nila (We would not allow what they have done. They should pay the damages to our properties and those that they confiscated),” Brawner added.

Brawner said the CCG committed sheer piracy.

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We should cease these kinds of resupply mission like what happened on June 17. I’ve been badgering the national government and the AFP in my previous columns and blogs that we should resort what the U.S military have been doing during the 1968 Khe San aerial resupply and similar resupplies in other countries in later years.

We can use one of our five U.S made four-engine Lockheed C-130 and the seven two-engine Airbus C-295M transport and cargo plane that has a capacity of carrying 19,090 and 9,000 kilos of cargo payloads, respectively, so we can shun the brow beating of our forces by the Chinese. I know the nuances of the C-130 because I’ve been riding this monster countless of times as an air force kid growing up in the then war torn Cotabato. Nakakahiya tayo despite we used to as propaganda this Beijing’s series of harassments before the world. We’ve been bullied there since time immemorial. Enough for ‘em!

  We should cease using the smaller Philippines Navy one-engine BA 2A-21 Islander - that has no ramp like the C-130 and the C-295 - for air dropping of supplies where some of them fell far away from our ghost ship’s Sierra Madre thus the CCG on their rubber boats clashed with the RHIBs of the Philippines Coast Guard (PCG) in retrieving those food and medical supplies that the Chinese suspected to be construction materials to the Marines holed in at the idled naval ship

The AFP can either use the low-altitude parachute-extraction system (LAPES) or the ground proximity extraction system (GPES).

LAPES -- according to the Handbook of The SAS And Elite Forces -- is a tactical military airlift delivery method where a fixed-wing cargo aircraft can deposit supplies in situations in which landing is not an option, in an area that is too small to accurately parachute supplies from a high altitude.

GPES -- according to The Airborne and Special Operations Test Board, 1940-1990, A commemorative History by Robert L. Johnson II (October 1990)-- is similar to the arrester technique used on aircraft carriers. The cargo aircraft flies low over the delivery area. A hook is attached to the pallet load. Another hook at the other end of the cable line is attached to the rear cargo door. When the plane nears the delivery site, the hook at the cargo door snags an arrester wire that is placed perpendicular to the plane's flight path thereby yanking the pallet load out of the aircraft to the intended delivery site.

You can read the details of the LAPES and GPES at my previous blog titled: Bagsakanang Sierra Madre ng Semento, Bakal Galing sa C-130 and Huddling with DFA’s Top Guns on the Spratly’s Conundrum