Nick Sotelo, son of retired Lt. Gen. Antonio Sotelo, former CG-PAF and Vice Chief of Staff of the AFP shared his father’s thoughts on the scrapping of the VFA.
In a Facebook post, Sotelo quoted his father with regards to Del Rosario’s comment on VFA termination vis-a-vis his reaction, “Del Rosario, an American boy, says it is a “national tragedy” if the VFA is terminated. I, a Pinoy, say otherwise. It is a continuing national tragedy if the VFA is not terminated.”
Sotelo, referring to the retired Lt. General, also commented on some Filipinos saying they don’t POGOS because of Chinese prostitution. “We don’t like POGOS because the Chinese proliferate prostitution. What about the pampam joes? Don’t they?”
Moving forward, the retired General’s son said that his father has been very vocal about his disdain at how Americans treated us when the US bases were still here. For example, the US was supposed to pay the PH a rent of $100M but instead of cash, we were given discarded military equipments. “Many years back, he has also always expressed his disdain at how Americans treated us during the time of the bases being here. We were said to be being paid $100M for the bases but instead of cash, we are given obsolete helicopters, planes, ships and other equipment, most of which are already mothballed in the Arizona desert.“
Sotelo recalled the project when his father was tasked to acquire military hardware like jets for the PAF. They went to a junkyard in Texas to acquire 24 jets already mothballed for years and resuscitated for PAF as rent for the US bases in PH. “One good example is a project he was tasked with, which was to acquire the 24 F-8H Crusader jets from Fort Worth, Texas, ex-US Navy jets mothballed and junked already for years, only to be resuscitated and given to us as payment for the bases’ use. Same was true with the UH-1H Huey helos as well as WWII ships for the Philippine Navy.“
Instead of saving money in acquiring the military hardwares for the AFP, the country spent more to make these equipments battle-ready. Nick Sotelo’s father lamented how Americans mistreated the Philippines – they gave us junks and told us we owe them. “Not only are they obsolete, they also require parts not anymore in production, therefore, are 3 to 4 times its usual price. Hence, what they say they pay us with becomes almost nil. Such is how the Americans treated us!! Gave us junk, then told us we owe them.“
Sotelo revealed that during Mutual Defense Meetings, his father raised the issue and demanded the American pay the rent in cash so that the Philippines can shop for brand new military hardware somewhere else. He said that cost him his chance of becoming the next CS-AFP Chief of Staff of the AFP). “During the Mutual Defense Board meetings, he expressed his desire to simply have the Americans pay us in cash so we can just buy our own, instead of giving us all junked equipment. He even said, because of that, his chances of becoming CS-AFP was gone because of our country’s inclination to the Americans.“
Sotelo was beaming with pride to tell the public that during his father’s stint as the VC-AFP, set the motion to purchase new military equipments for the AFP until very recently. “Hence, during his term as VCS-AFP and as such, chairman of the Weapons Board, he set to acquire our last major purchase of brand new equipment for the AFP which included the Simba Armored Vehicles {British} for the Army, MG-520 attack helicopters (US) & S-211 jets(Italian) for the Air Force, Jose Andrada class ships (US) for the Navy and other equipment so our AFP can have brand new instead of obsolete equipment during his time.“
Sotelo concluded this was the legacy of his father and will be remembered by the AFP for years. “It would be the last brand new major purchases of the AFP for many years to come and such was my father’s legacy to the AFP. As for the Americans? They kept us weak so that we will always have a need for their VFA. Pweh!!“
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Source: Nick Sotelo
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