Philippine Politics: South Korean War Jets Means Bigger Taxes and More Financial Repression

From Today’s Inquirer headlines

Move over. The big boys are coming.

President Benigno Aquino III said the Philippines was close to finalizing a deal with a state-owned Korean aerospace firm to buy a squadron of FA-50 fighter jets worth P18.9 billion—a move seen to bolster the country’s aerial power and defend its territory in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Mr. Aquino said he discussed the procurement of 12 brand-new multirole combat aircraft from the Korea Aerospace Industries Inc. (KAI) when he met with South Korean President Park Geun-hye at the Blue House, South Korea’s seat of power.

He said it was part of the commitment of both countries to improve their military cooperation, in line with a memorandum of understanding they entered into on Thursday.

The first statement should have read 

Filipino taxpayers beware. The big taxes are coming

Funny how media glamorizes what has been sold by political agents to the public as patriotic mirage of defending domestic territories. In reality, the territorial dispute has served as smoke screen for expansionist government via bigger deficit spending, more political control (lesser civil liberties), promoting US bases and the military industrial complex (here and abroad)

As the recent Zamboanga City crisis has revealed, superiority and capability plays little in the way the Philippine military operates. The sordid Zamboanga episode exhibits how the much 'superior' Philippine military bungled their operations relative to a much ill equipped, inferior in numbers and in training insurgents (Wikipedia note; MNLF participants 500, Philippines army participants 5,000 with tanks personnel carriers, and air support—attack aircraft, helicopters). 

Yet it took 16 days for the military to crush the insurgents (casualties Philippine military: 25 dead 184 wounded, MNLF: 183 dead, 292 captured). This is hardly an example to justify the government's claim to increase defense spending.

And it seems no more than wishful thinking for anyone to believe that new ‘modern’ armaments will serve to neutralize the far superior nuclear and drone equipped Chinese army. A chart comparing the US and Chinese military in Asia, I have previously posted here.

The reality is that invoking nationalism to defend “insignificant scrubby rocks” (John Keller) which supposed ‘rich’ resource reserves will only be beneficial to politically connected allies (cronies) via service contract permits issued by the government.

Societies hardly get rich from resources, they get rich from free trade, the market economy or economic freedom. 

Natural resources have in fact been a blight to many countries. This has been known as the resource curse. Resource revenues tend to cover up on government's mismanagement. Also the ruling elite who control these resources tend to pushback on economic reforms.

Yet politicians have been agitating for war, whose benefits will accrue to a few and whose costs will be distributed and paid for by the productive agents of the Philippine society.

Spurious nationalism will be funded by bigger taxes and by more financial repression (inflationism, negative rates, deposit caps and other capital controls)

Of course in case of actual shooting encounters, it won’t be the politicians life whom will be at stake but the lowly foot soldier, who either earnestly believe they are fighting for a righteous cause or out of the lack economic opportunities. Unfortunately they serve as unwitting pawns of grandstanding politicians.

But the best way to resolve such impasse will be to deepen trade and commercial relationships that will promote deeper social interactions that would empower the citizenry rather than brinkmanship politics from politicians.

As I have been saying, all these has partly been about promoting the return of the US military bases—a legacy the incumbent administration wishes to fulfill which had been terminated in 1992 during the incumbent’s mother’s administration. 

Despite denials by the US to seek permanent presence, the US wants extended access to Philippine bases. The rehashed US-Philippine military relationship has been framed in the context to become palatable to public opinion.

The Left has alleged that the Philippine government has spent Php 500 million in building base infrastructure in Palawan to accommodate US military. If true, then this has been foreordained as popularity ratings will be used to formally bring back US bases. Except of course, the pork barrel scam has frayed into these populist ratings.

While it is true that Philippines will be buying these jets from a Korean state defense industry, what has not been revealed is that the FA-50 has essentially been powered, equipped and armed by mostly the US-Israel military industrial complex 

From the Wikipedia (bold mine)

The FA-50 is the most advanced version of the T-50. It is equipped with a modified Israeli EL/M-2032 pulse-Doppler radar with further Korean-specific modifications by LIG Nex1, and has more internal fuel capacity, enhanced avionics, a longer radome and a tactical datalink The radar selected for the FA-50 has a range two-thirds greater than the TA-50's radar. The EL/M-2032 was initially chosen over Lockheed Martin's preferred AN/APG-67(V)4 and SELEX Vixen 500E AESA radars. Other AESA radars such as Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar and Northrop Grumman's Scalable Agile Beam Radar are options for future production, and will likely be shared with the same AESA radar chosen for the USAF and ROKAF F-16 fighters. Samsung Thales is also independently developing a domestic multi-mode AESA radar for FA-50/ In December 2008, South Korea awarded a contract to Korea Aerospace Industries to convert four T-50s to FA-50 standards by 2012. In 2012, The Republic of Korea Air Force has ordered 20 FA-50 fighters to be delivered by the end of 2014 The maiden flight of FA-50 multirole fighter variant took place in 2011. The 60 FA-50 aircraft are to be produced from 2013 to 2016. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) received a 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion) order for FA-50 fighter aircraft in May 2013.

The T-50 is the proposed base for the more advanced F-50 fighter with strengthened wings, AESA radar, more internal fuel, enhanced electronic warfare capability, and a more powerful engine. The proposal is designated as T-50 Phase 3 program by KAI. Wing strengthening is required to support three underwing weapons pylons, compared to two underwing pylons on the TA-50 or FA-50. The AESA radar was expected to be RACR, which has 90% commonality with the AESA radar of the Super Hornet, or SABR, both of which are competing for KF-16's AESA radar upgrade program. Samsung Thales' AESA radar is also a possible option. The aircraft was altered to a single-seat configuration to allow more space for internal fuel and electronic warfare equipment. The engine could be either Eurojet EJ200 or General Electric F414, upgraded to 20,000 lb or 22,000 lb thrust, which is about 12-25% higher than the F404's thrust. The engines are already being offered for the baseline T-50 for future customers. A similar Korean-led international fighter program exists named the KAI KF-X.

TA-50/FA-50 armaments again from Wikipedia

The TA-50 version mounts a three-barrel cannon version of the M61 Vulcan internally behind the cockpit, which fires linkless 20 mm ammunition. Wingtip rails can accommodate the AIM-9 Sidewinders missile, a variety of additional weapons can be mounted to underwing hardpoints. Compatible air-to-surface weapons include the AGM-65 Maverick missile, Hydra 70 and LOGIR rocket launchers, CBU-58 and Mk-20 cluster bombs, and Mk-82, −83, and −84 general purpose bombs.

FA-50 can be externally fitted with Rafael's Sky Shield or LIG Nex1's ALQ-200K ECM pods, Sniper or LITENING targeting pods, and Condor 2 reconnaissance pods to further improve the fighter's electronic warfare, reconnaissance, and targeting capabilities. Other improved weapon systems over TA-50 include SPICE multifunctional guidance kits, Textron CBU-97/105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon with WCMD tail kits, JDAM, and JDAM-ER for more comprehensive air-to-ground operations, and AIM-120 missiles for BVR air-to-air operations. FA-50 has provisions for, but does not yet integrate, Python and Derby missiles, also produced by Rafael, and other anti-ship missiles, stand-off weapons, and sensors to be domestically developed by Korea

The South Korean army has also essentially been supported (28,000 troops) by the US, as well as armed and equipped (from army, navy, air force to marine corps mostly by the US military and US defense contractors. 

So the Korean defense industry represents a token of real defense spending $31.7 billion (2013), where according to Wikipedia arms exports totaled $183 million (2012) compared to imports at $1.131 billion (2010). 

In July 2013, the South Korean military appealed to the Parliament for an increase 13.7% of the military budget which translates to $38.5 billion to beef up the nation's missile defense. 

The point is South Korean defense industry has been deeply tied with the US military complex. So this reflects on the dynamics behind the Philippine government's proposed buying of South Korean jets.

Bottom line: The fantasy of arming for defense by the Philippine government to protect against the far more powerful China serves as economic privileges for the US-Israel defense industry (also Korea’s KAI), the Philippine bureaucracy and the Philippine military as well as the US military. 

The first three will be charged to us, the Philippine taxpayers. The US military base/s will be charged to the American taxpayers but whose subsequent social and environmental costs will a burden to local communities in the Philippines who will serve as host/s to the base/s.