Sometimes this martial law series and the Retards in the Government series cross paths. Like last week when the AFP announced that a China based telecom would be erecting servers inside military bases. Where am I supposed to place this news?
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has entered into an agreement that would allow the country’s third major telecommunications player, which is partly backed by state-owned China Telecom, to build its communication facilities in military camps and installations.
Dito Telecommunity, formerly known as Mislatel, is a consortium led by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, which includes Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Udenna Corp. and China Telecom.
Uy is also known for his close ties with President Rodrigo Duterte.
Under the agreement, AFP will determine specific locations where Dito can build its communication sites “without undermining the operations of affected units.”
It also includes a guarantee from Dito that “the devices, equipment, and/or structures installed at the site provided by the AFP shall not be used to obtain classified information.”
“As a Filipino company, cybersecurity in terms of national security, we will always keep this paramount and we will never allow and country to violate our national and cybersecurity,” he said.
Some government officials and analysts have earlier raised concerns over the Chinese stake in the consortium, amid Beijing’s use of cyber surveillance in other countries.
If the AFP is not concerned about the security risks of a telecom partly backed by a hostile nation installing communication facilities in it's camps then neither am I. What interests me most about this deal is that DND Chief Lorenzana was completely in the dark about it.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is unaware of the deal between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and a local telecom consortium, which includes China Telecom, that would allow the telco to set up facilities inside military camps and installations.
Lorenzana said he was traveling when the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the AFP and Mislatel consortium’s Dito Telecommunity Corp. (DTC) was signed last week.
He pointed out that the MOA was not yet binding as he has still to approve the deal, saying, “When I inquired, the AFP chief of staff said the MOA is going to my office for my approval.”
“So now I am aware of it and I will scrutinize it carefully before giving my approval,” Lorenzana assured.
Chinese casinos are being built near AFP bases, a Chinese telecom has made a deal to put communication facilities inside AFP camps, thousands of Chinese are in the country illegally, China refuses to recognise the Hague arbitral ruling, but the government keeps on dismissing fears about Chinese espionage.
“He’s not worried because we have the intelligence capability of knowing what they are doing,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
The Palace spokesman issued the statement after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana warned that Chinese nationals working in online casinos near Philippine military facilities may shift into spying.
“The President said any foreign national working here, group, need not to be near military camps in order to get intelligence. Because considering the [high-technology, even if you’re 1,000 miles away, they can spy on us,” he said.
It is this bumbling attitude that is troublesome. Lorenzana is in the dark over a major deal and Duterte says it doesn't matter if Chinese in the country are spying on us because the Philippines can be spied on 1000 miles away. But if you have been following this series or you know anything about the AFP and the DND then you know that such a lackadaisical attitude is nothing new. Over the past few weeks I have documented how the AFP continues to enact the same policies in their war against the insurgency. How their definition of insurgent-free, no reported sightings of insurgents, is faulty and has led to the resurgence of insurgents in areas once deemed cleared.
Now there is a new AFP Chief in town and he is spouting off the same old promises.
Incoming Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff, Lt. Gen. Noel Clement, on Friday vowed to use the whole-of-nation approach so that the security threats posed by the communist insurgency can be defeated once and for all.
"I think the most critical factor now is how to bring in everybody on board against this fight because it is not possible if the Armed Forces (of the Philippines) does it alone or if the local government units are the ones battling this problem. It has to be the whole country, the whole nation. This is a national problem so we have to address this as a people, collectively, so that our country would achieve lasting peace," he told reporters when asked how he planned to expedite the defeat of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army (CPP-NPA).
Clement also vowed to create a bigger dent on the CPP-NPA's ranks and its capability to create terror and atrocities with the whole-of-nation approach.
When exactly did the AFP make the insurgency a national problem that needed to be addressed collectively? Do they see the irony in acting collectively against communist rebels? The beginning of his tenure as Chief is starting off good enough.
Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) captured Tuesday night a high-ranking female leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) communist terrorist group in this city.
Col. Alex Rillera, commander of the 202nd Brigade which has operational jurisdiction in the area, said Antonia Tonog Setias-Dizon alias “Tonet” was nabbed during a joint law enforcement operation here around 11 p.m.
Rillera said military record showed that Dizon was designated as head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-National Organizing Department (NOD) when her comrade Adelberto Silva was arrested in Sta. Cruz, Laguna last year.
He said Dizon was arrested by virtue of a warrant for the crime of murder, with Criminal Case no. 5965 issued by Acting Executive Judge Lou A. Nueva of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 7 in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur.
“This will create a leadership vacuum that will further speed up their imminent defeat,” Burgos said.
All of the above news items are good. But then they go and mess it up by talking about the CPP-NPA's imminent defeat.
“The so-called communist groups of the New People's Army and the National Democratic Front would soon enough be either exterminated or re-introduced into the body politic,” Andanar said during an event of the Lions Clubs International last Saturday in Parañaque.
Re-introduced to the body politic? What? That is crazy enough as is forecasting their soon extermination. Best not to say those words with the AFP's track record. It would be much better to just keep at it here a little there a little and sustain the gains. Right now many people think the ordered arrest of CPP founder Joma Sison is a gain.
Exactly five days before the commemoration of the Inopacan massacre in Leyte by surviving families whose loved ones were among the hundreds of victims killed in a mass execution perpetrated by the New People’s Army (NPA) in the 1980s, a Manila court has ordered the arrest of Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and 37 others including rebel group leaders and members.
Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 32 in Manila, issued the Warrant of Arrest dated August 28, 2019, against Sison with aliases Joma, Armando Guerrero, Armando Liwanag, and his wife Juliet, former National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiator, among others.
Charges were filed in 2006 after the skeletal remains of 67 victims were exhumed from shallow graves in Subang Daku village, Inopacan town, Leyte on August 28, 2006.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
But Sison is thousands of miles away in the Netherlands and he is protected under political asylum.
If the request is granted, the weight of the red notice would still be determined by the country where Sison is staying, the Netherlands.
Sison, however, is still under political asylum in the northwestern European country, spoiling the chances of the PNP getting an overseas arrest.
National Democratic Front chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili told Rappler that Sison is covered by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Albayalde said the PNP, along with the Philippine military, plan to ask the Netherlands to drop Sison's asylum on the basis of a new arrest warrant against him.
Sison has been hiding out in the Netherlands for decades. Any chance at arresting him is a long shot. Too bad the AFP is not as coordinated as Mossad. The way they
kidnapped Adolf Eichmann and brought him from Argentina to Israel to stand trial for war crimes is the stuff of legend.
While the new AFP Chief has his hands full with insurgents and terrorists he also has to deal with rogue elements within the AFP.
The Department of National Defense (DND) will conduct an inventory of the military’s firearms and ammunition after the interim head of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) alleged most loose firearms in Mindanao have markings that indicate these belong to the department.
BARMM Interim Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim said in a television interview on Wednesday that the markings could mean there was a “leakage” from the government armory.
He added that the firearms found their way in the hands of civilians, private armies and rebels.
Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgar Arevalo said there were instances when government-issued firearms and ammunition were lost “during armed engagements and ambuscades.”
In separate statements, Arevalo and DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said that they were taking cognizance of Murad’s statement, hence the investigation.
“We assure the public that anyone from the defense establishment who is found guilty of gunrunning or pilferage of firearms and munitions will be dealt with severely and sanctioned accordingly … The DND will not tolerate any individuals or groups that violate Philippine gun laws,” Andolong said.
This problem of government issued guns making their way into the hands of militants is an old problem. Did they really investigate this situation after Marawi?
Most weapons recovered from slain militants belonging to the Maute group and its allies or from areas they had vacated in this Lanao del Sur provincial capital bore marks which indicated that these came from the government, a military spokesperson said.
“It only meant that somebody from the government sold it to them,” said Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson for the Joint Task Force Marawi.
No they did not. They destroyed them and denied they had any government markings.
“As for the (seized Maute Group) firearms inventoried so far, we are still to see any weapon (serial numbers) matching those in the inventory of the AFP,” Guerrero said in Filipino when asked during a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City whether AFP weapons were found among the terrorists’ arms cache.
One AFP spokesman says most recovered weapons had government markings and another says no weapons had such markings. Now we see BARMM leader Murad alleging that most loose weapons have military markings. What is true and what is false? The public sure doesn't know. Does the AFP?
