DEAR Mr. President:
In layman terms, a drone could be defined simply as a flying robot, because that is what it is.
As a matter of fact, even grade school students are now capable of making makeshift robots, using microcomputers or mini motherboards such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
These robots could do basic tasks such as walking, jumping and fighting. With some more programming, these robots could already be made to fly, hence they become drones.
Contrary to popular knowledge, drones could not only fly, but they could also walk or crawl on land, and dive or swim underwater. If their bodies or casings could be made to be waterproof, they could dive or swim.
I am not qualified to talk about using drones for combat purposes, but in response to requests from some of my readers, I decided to write about building drones for whatever purpose, but not necessarily for war purposes. However, I will not hesitate to say that all drones that are designed for civilian use could easily be configured for military use.
The possibilities for using drones for peacetime purposes are endless. Among the possible uses are for agriculture, for environmental protection, for traffic management, for urban planning, for disaster rescue and relief and for police surveillance.
But even if we will not run out of ideas about how we put drones to good use, we could certainly run out of money if we will keep on importing these drones from foreign countries. And that is my main point Mr. President, that we should come out with a national policy that would require all national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs) to buy only drones that are made only in the Philippines, because I am very sure that we could make these 100% locally.
And what is my proof that we could make 100% of our drones locally?
My answer to that is very simple. The key to good drone design is good engineering, backed up by good programming.
Mr. President, it is a well-known fact that we have some of the best engineers and programmers in the world, and they are so good that foreign companies are pirating them from right under our eyes.
For example, we are so amazed at what Engineer Dado Banatao has done, but how many more like him are just waiting to be discovered and put to good use?
Even if I am not a programmer myself, I have worked with so many of them, enough for me to confidently say that they are among the best in the world.
It does not matter what programming language is required, because they could learn it quickly, even if they don’t know it yet. Name it, and they know it. From the old programming languages like COBOL and Assembler to the newer ones like Java and Phyton, it’s all chicken feed to them.
Perhaps in the past, Mr. President, our country might have missed out in the business of making computers, but now we have the chance of making our own drones. Not only for our own use, but perhaps even for export also.
