By Mortz C. Ortigoza
When I told BDO-Dagupan City’s Manager Henry Arce, a resident of Ilocos Norte, about the Ilocos goons hired by Pangasinan’s politicians, he told me in his place in Ilocos politikos there hired Abra goons at the start of the barnstorming of the election.
These goons could do the bidding of their patrons by acting as deterrence and for harassment against the camp of their patrons' rivals and even killing the enemies there.
 |
A former congressman who ran for mayor told me that his newly hired Igorot
(mountain people) bodyguards came from Ifugao.
“Mga matatapang iyan,” he told me while we sipped coffee at his
house while the number of body guards and some ex-military and retired military
men from his place watched the surrounding.
“Para pa lang mga Gurkha itong mga Igorot niyo,” I cited about the
diminutive soldiers from Nepal the British rigorously trained for their wars
like in the Falklands against Argentina and those who served with the United Nations
and the United States in their battles in Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor, Sierra
Leone, and Iraq.
The Gurkhas values bravery, loyalty, and honor. Their history is
steeped in tales of valor and heroism, which instills a strong sense of duty
and courage.
I wrote a column before on these goons (cops in the Philippines called
them PAG or Private Armed Group) when a mayor in Central Pangasinan told me he
hired those guys but he provided them with long and short firearms to make them
lethal.
Here’s an excerpt of that column I wrote after a Pangasinan mayor was
assassinated:
“Before a mayor of Pangasinan, who
allegedly maintained sicarios (hit men), went to Infanta recently to pay his
last respect to the slain Mayor Ruperto Martinez, I went near his van.
He showed me two Russian-made folding- type
Kalashnikov AK-47s sprawled at the floor of his car.
“Why not use those M-15 A4 Carbine (baby M-16 Armalite used by U.S special
forces in the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq) your family has been giving as
gift to political friends,” I asked him.
He just laughed. He told me AK-47 (that has a
100-round detachable box and drum style magazine) is much powerful than M–15.
I agreed with him because as a son of a military man and was brought up in the war torn’s Cotabato Province in the 1970’s, I saw that the 7.62mm diameter bullets and the 39mm long cartridge of the AK-47 (just like the Belgian FAL used by the Moro National Liberation Front, and the American made M-60 light machine gun installed at the two sides of the military’s Huey utility helicopter that brought my father at our town’s M’lang, Cotabato everytime he had furlough) are more lethal than the 5.56 mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) cartridge -- known too as the .223 caliber cartridge – as used in the U.S made M-16 Armalite or M-15 Carbine.
When I told this story two day later to a high elective official in central Pangasinan who used to hire close-in body guards from Ilocos every election time, he told me he sold all his M-16s he bought before in lieu of the much powerful AK-47.
I could not agree more. This Russian made assault rifle invented by an Ivan Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov has been known to have the same fire-power with the longer M-14 rifle (first entered service in 1957 and was used by the U.S Marines when they set foot in Vietnam in the early of 1960s).
According to the online Wikepidia: “The main advantages of the Kalashnikov rifle are its simple design, fairly compact size, and adaptation to mass production. It is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to clean and maintain. Its ruggedness and reliability are legendary. The AK-47 was initially designed for ease of operation and repair by glove-wearing Soviet soldiers in Arctic conditions. The large gas piston, generous clearances between moving parts, and tapered cartridge case design allow the gun to endure large amounts of foreign matter and fouling without failing to cycle”.
***
To would- be- assassins, who would ambush a rich politician; just take pre-caution my dear killers. The Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Montero, or the Starex Van you want to ambush has probably a cache of full metal jacket Kalash versus your .45 caliber hand gun. Not to mention if the vehicles of the target are the bullet proof U.S made P10 million Cadillac Escalade -- where only two or three politicians in my forty four towns and four cities' province used them with countless armed body guards in the escort vehicles leading and tailing 'em.
Susmariosep, that
would be a mismatch”.
READ MY OTHER BLOG:
MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
I am a more than two -decade seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and blogs exposing corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing with diligence local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment