President Rodrigo Duterte at the statue of the ‘Fallen Airmen. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday presided over the wreath-laying in honor of the “Fallen Airmen” during the 71st founding anniversary of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) held at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.

Unknown to many young Filipinos, the very first “fallen airman” of record was the gallant Cesar Basa who, with only 15 minutes worth of fuel left in his Curtiss P-26A “Peashooter” fighter plane, tried to engage Japanese enemy fighter pilots.

According to historical accounts, Basa was already on patrol for two hours on December 12, 1941 when he scrambled to join five Filipino fighter pilots led by Captain Jesus Villamor in repelling 27 Japanese bombers and 17 escort fighters.

The Japanese were on a bombing run with the Batangas Airfield as their primary target when they were met by Villamor’s fighters.

Curtiss P-26A fighter plane Outnumbered but never outgunned, Villamor and his fighters won several dogfights at 12,000 feet to prevent the Japanese raiders from reaching and bombing Batangas Airfield.

The only casualty among the Filipinos was Basa whose plane was intercepted and shot down by seven Japanese fighters. While Basa was able to bail out of the plane, he was raked with machinegun fire while helplessly on his parachute.

Basa was awarded the Silver Star in recognition of his gallantry.

Fast-forward to 2018 and the PAF is taking the first steps in integrating efforts to regain its air defense capabilities.

This was emphasized by Air Force head Lt. Gen. Galileo Gerard Kintanar as the air service celebrated its anniversary with President Duterte as guest of honor.

“Currently, our focus is on integrating efforts in regaining air defense capabilities for peace and resilient development, our anniversary theme for this (year),” he added.

Kintanar, however, admitted that integration is a challenge due to the cost of developing a robust joint command, control, communications, computer and information (C4I) system.

But he said the Air Force has taken the initial steps with acquisition of 12 South Korean-made Mach 1.5 capable FA-50 light-lift fighter trainers and the coming activation of their brand-new air defense surveillance radars.

The above-mentioned platforms are part of the ongoing Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program.

“But this is only our path ahead with our FA-50(PH) aircraft in harness and with our air defense surveillance radars scheduled to go up in time, best practice dictates that our decision loops must be based on common operating features and shared situational awareness. In this time and age no Air Force can afford to fly in the haze of uncertainty or fog of conflict,” the PAF chief added.

In line with this, Kintanar said the PAF is now coordinating with the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to integrate their air defense radars with those of the CAAP to enable PAF to effectively monitor and detect unregistered aircraft and other unidentified entrants.

“More importantly we need to engage more stakeholders as we develop a national strategy for aviation security with DoTr and CAAP as our main partners,” he added.