By Mauro Gia Samonte
You can hear the drop of a needle. That’s to put it allegorically, the ear-splitting silence from traditional rah-rah boys of the United States on the recently uncovered faking by the US of its military planes as Malaysian and Philippine civilian aircraft in order to hide their spying missions on China.
I have taken up this issue two columns ago, and somehow it is reassuring that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon have already bothered seeking reaction from the US Embassy. No such reaction has so far emanated from any responsible embassy official, much less from Ambassador Sung Kim.
Two weeks is rather too long for the US Embassy people to reply to inquiries of Lorenzana and Esperon, but that is to be expected. The matter raised by the two is so sensitive that the authorities in the embassy would want to keep their reaction as sought under wraps.
What’s most interesting is that the US cheering squad in the Philippines composed of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and their ilk such as Jay Batongbacal, Richard Heydarian, Rappler, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star are unusually quiet on the fakery front. Normally, even before a perceived hurt on the Philippines can get widely ventilated in the media, this group, quite akin to orchestra members playing according to the baton of the single conductor, erupts in loud protests, castigating the perceived perpetrators of the hurt. Recall the war hysteria they vigorously promoted against China in reaction to the reported ramming of a Filipino fishing boat, Gemver 2, by a Chinese vessel. The group’s reaction to that incident was instantaneous.
How fiercely nationalist they pictured themselves to be, taking up the cudgels for the distressed Filipino fishermen. But level-headedness prevailed both upon Philippine and Chinese authorities. After a week of tension, they found out that the boat-ramming episode was actually an accident. And China and the Philippines were back to each other’s good graces once again.
So now, we have this issue of United States spy planes faking themselves as some other countries’ civilian aircraft to escape detection. This one is no accident. Over the year, no less than 100 of such spy flights have been recorded of US military planes and each time, they used ICAO hex codes assigned to other countries, mostly Malaysia and the Philippines.
What could result from this dastardly ploy of the US military is that it would condition the superb radar system of China to sensing a Philippine aircraft intruding into Chinese territory for espionage missions. Like I said in my previous column on the issue, radars don’t think; they just find targets and hit. I cited the case of a Ukrainian civilian airline that Iranian radars mistook for attacking a US missile and instantly blasted it, killing all passengers aboard.
What, then, if a real Philippine civilian aircraft laden with a couple of hundred Filipinos traverses its normal route over the Chinese coast and China’s radar system takes it as another US spy plane attacking? Imagine the hundreds of Filipino lives lost all for mistaken identities.
Now, to the point. If Carpio, del Rosario, Rappler, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star and the rest of their ilk can go to the extent of agitating for war against China in the accidental ramming of Gemver 2, why are they so silent in this faking by the US of its spy planes as Philippine civilian aircraft? In this case, not only 24 lives are at stake but hundreds upon hundreds possibly getting killed as a result of mistaken identities.
As stated earlier, it is reassuring enough that the Philippine Defense secretary and the country’s top security adviser have taken the trouble of seeking clarification from the US Embassy. But we need to take a stronger position on the matter.
If need be, spark wide public outrage over the issue. Use the media to the hilt. Mobilize the people in forums, organize discussion groups, conduct mass protest actions — all forms of getting across to people the message that Filipino lives are once again being sacrificed for pushing US interest.
This should give Carpio and Del Rosario et al a dose of their own medicine. Every time there appears a perceived hurt by China against Filipinos, they do just that for the sake of America. Now that America is the clear perpetrator of a dastardly crime against the people, throw this challenge smack to their faces: Condemn America.
In the Gemver 2 accidental incident, you were all so agitated and were one with Ambassador Sung Kim in invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty for taking action against China to the extent of war.
Now that Sung Kim is taking so long replying to the inquiries of Philippine authorities on the issues, all of you impostor nationalists are similarly tight-lipped.
Don’t be so latently traitorous to the Filipino nation, Carpio and Del Rosario et al. Put on a little hypocrisy. If only for the show of it, proclaim: “We condemn in the strongest term this faking by the US of its spy planes as Philippine civilian aircraft. It puts Filipino lives on the line.”
Source: Manila Times 18-10-2020