The Fourth Perspective

The failure to seriously addressed this question through doctrinal integration and strategy development may be fatal to any effort of protecting an archipelagic country like the Philippines.  The Philippines is a nation separated by bodies of water. In an event of invasion or foreign aggression, how will it be possible to maintain each island free from the occupation of a foreign power? We have to bear in mind that each island is strategic in its own right, but physically isolated from the rest, a plus factor for the invading forces and a minus for the defenders. The aggressor need not worry about its flanks since there are only but bodies of water surrounding it. A concentrated superior and brute force can be employed one island at a time till the defenders are cornered like rats. After which, the beleaguered and defeated island will be used as a base or staging area to attack the next, and so on. The lessons of Bataan and Corregidor should somehow exemplify this point. Even Gen. Mc

This was written in another venue before the May 2016 presidential election. See how it translate into actual events that are slowly unfolding. I am not gunning for anybody in the May 2016 presidential election. It is because the system has given me no choice. I believe that the system is designed to perpetuate a small circle of the elitist in power who are pretending to be otherwise. The system has been spewing the same faces and names, over and over, time and again, since the days of feudal Philippines. In my humble mind, it doesn’t really matter who wins. So long as the system is perpetuating its intended purpose, nothing can really change, and so I thought. It is certain that my feeling against the system and the politicians that thrive on it is shared by most Filipinos. This is exemplified by the possibility of Mr. Duterte’s pluralist presidency. This is despite his personality frailties, inconsistencies, and self-contradiction, that he himself has been revealing in the cour

A not so recent report disclosed that the Department of National Defense is inclined to adopt the Gripen as its multi-role fighter. But it seems that this fighter jet may just leave the Philippine Air Force wanting. Let's do some simple math. The EEZ per UNCLOS is within 200 nautical miles or about 370 kilometers extending from the island baseline. If the subject Gripen on a mission is to proceed on a straight path from a land base to the edge of the EEZ and vice-versa, it will spend 740 kilometers of its combat radius. It is noted that the published combat radius of the subject Gripen is 800 kilometers. As such, the Gripen will be left with 60 kilometers in fuel for actual combat and evasive maneuver. Barring other variables and assuming that it is flying at the speed of 1500 kilometers per hour, it has about 2.5 minutes to do its thing. If it goes beyond 60 kilometers, or if it loitered longer than 2.5 minutes, it could literally fall off the sky anytime, while en route ba