Let it not be said that the men and women of the Armed Forces of the Philippines do not try their best to make lemonade from lemons. In the proverbial sidewalk of life, these guys squeeze every bit of juice and pulp to put in their lemonade. Which doesn’t quite mean that they cannot be kicked to the curb by big bullies.
Great effort does not always mean great success, as these formerly top secret weapons will show.
The Sumpak
When you name your wheeled mini-rocket pod after a make-shift weapon crafted out of a metal pipe, a nail and a shotgun shell, you’re either very honest, or have the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor that nobody really gets.
Fashioned, according to our intensive research, from rocket pods taken from Air Force planes, it is not known whether the Sumpak actually saw combat. Or the light of day, even.
The Bong Bong
A Martial Law-era project when our Army still had much to be Martial with, the Bong Bong, or the Sta. Barbara Project, was our attempt at an indigenous rocket launcher.
With communists and Muslim separatists threatening to tear the country apart, the Bong Bong was just the type of fearsome weapon that could make all communists good communists.
Some say that the rockets used in the Bong Bong project are still under storage in Naval Station Cavite. Which either means that the Red Menace is already a thing of the past, or that they didn’t work.
They were named after the president’s son, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., which suggests the same thing that having big guns, sports cars and huge SUVs does. Unfortunately, this substitute penis doesn’t seem to have much of a bang.
The Defiant
The Defiant was our attempt at manufacturing a propeller-driven training airplane for our Air Force cadets. It was designed by Capt. Panfilo Villaruel out of wood, metal, and cobbled-together parts from other planes.
Government support for the project was sporadic, and after three administrations, President Joseph Ejercito Estrada killed the project in favor of the F-15 jet fighter, with which we now rule our skies.
Frustrated, Villaruel holed up in a control tower to decry corruption in the Arroyo government (and government in general,) and was shot for his troubles.
The story about Villaruel
http://www.newsflash.org/2003/05/hl/hl019192.htm(Pictures and information were taken from timawa.net)
