ARESCOM Legal Mandate
At the height of the Pinatubo tragedy, the implementation of the CAD under RA 7077 or Citizen Army Law (patterned after Israel) was in full swing. Even during the eruption itself we were manning the VABROC (Villamor Air Base Relief Operations Center). And when weekly missions were held at Subic and Zambales, we, members of the PAFRESCOM were regularly utilized to conduct medical and relief goods distribution operations. We saw the harsh reality of conducting relief operations: some barangay looting the hi jacking the relief goods, theft of relief goods at the operations center, corruption regarding duty and patrol pay, etc. But they were beside the point.
The law was supposed to immediately mobilize the assets of the companies being led/in custody of the reserve officers in case of emergency like the Eastern Visayas, or even invasion. There is no need to wait for volunteerism. The Citizen Army is supposed to have been thoroughly trained and supplied with resources to carry out the mission in the law which says:
Section 7. Mission. - The mission of the Citizen Armed Force, alternately referred to as the Reserve Force, is it provide the base for the expansion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the event of war, invasion or rebellion, to assist in relief and rescue during disasters or calamities, to assist in socioeconomic development and to assist in the operation and maintenance of essential government or private utilities in the furtherance of overall mission.
Thus, power, electricity, transportation, telco can be restored by the Citizen Army. May be the law was forgotten (I went out because my feeling was that the organic units were cannibalizing the budget of the Reserve Command - we had no uniform, no combat boots but my friends in t
he legislature told me that there was a budget)
Who is in charge of implementing this law? Are they implementing this and are they faithful to the mission? Who is the head of ARESCOM?
There could have been less finger pointing, less mea culpa and finger pointing etc. Or we say there is NDRCC naman. Or there were barangay training naman. But where were they when they needed the most. Even in the US, the weekend, the reserve soldiers do a wonderful job of relief and rescue. Cant we do it here.?
The Israelites were able to defeat the Syrians in the 1990 ME war because they were able to mobilize their well trained Citizens Army in 17 hours; the Syrians thought it would take them 24 hours. Only a well trained citizens army can respond that fast because they can be trained and disciplined to do so. Our civilian forces were into this melee for one week and there a lot of complaints.
There were police and army components naman eh. Look at the mission again of Citizens Army law vs the current problem of resources and mobilization
Let us act on this.
The typhoon is just a test: what if the neighboring ASEAN country or an Asian superpower invades us? Are we prepared? We can be prepared because we have law that says so.
