By JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE
Interaksyon.com
AFTER the first hearing on the overpriced procurement of three helicopters by the Philippine National Police , the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has yet to unmask the mastermind behind the anomalous transaction.
“We don’t have the mastermind yet as of now, ” said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, committee chair head.
What is clear however, according to Guingona, is that the helicopters purchased by the PNP were second-hand and should not have been priced as brand new.
“The pilot’s statement is the most damning testimony,” Guingona added.
Supt. Claudio Gaspar Jr. earlier told senators probing the anomalous transaction on Thursday that he knew the choppers had been flown in the past but was unaware that it had been sold as brand new.
“Sa pagkakaalam ko ang bibilhin nila second hand,” Gaspar said.
Aside from being part of the 16-man PNP Inspection Team that oversaw the transaction, Gaspar was also the pilot of the two used choppers when it was still being used by the Arroyo family in 2004.
Gaspar said he frequently ferried former presidential son Mikey Arroyo to Pampanga using the Lionair helicopter with serial number 1372 as early as 2004. The chopper was said to have been refurbished and sold as brand new to the PNP.
Documents earlier provided by the Department of Interior Local Government showed that Mikey Arroyo, his wife Angela, and their two children were also ferried by the choppers from Lubao, Pampanga, to the A3 Station at the Presidential Security Group compound in Malacanang, a “Burgundy” station, and to Calatagan and Lipa City, Batangas, among other destinations.
Conspiracy to deceive
Guingona also said he believed PNP officials were conspiring to approve the anomalous transaction.
“What’s very clear is that there is conspiracy,” he said. “The PNP officers who were obviously shirking their responsibilities, all of them are conspirators.”
Guingona was not satisfied with the explanations of the PNP officials the senate invited for the investigation. He was particularly irked by the statement of Police Director Luizo Ticman, of the PNP Negotiation Committee, who said he was unaware of the nitty-gritty of the helicopter contract.
Ticman also admitted he failed to read the proposal of the helicopter firm because he was “relying on the secretariat, technical working group and legal.”
“Dahil sila po ang mas competent. That is within their competency,” Ticman said.
But Guingona asserted it was very obvious that based on the flight logs, the choppers being sold to the PNP had already been flown for more than 300 hours, a sign that they were pre-owned.
“You don’t have to be competent, you just have to have commo sense,” Guingona said.
However, Chief Superintendent Herold Ubalde, PNP director for legal services and member of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), said Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corporation (MAPTRA), the winning bidder in the helicopter contract, fooled them in the transaction.
According to Ubalde, in the supply contract, the PNP asked for brand new helicopters but the bid documents showed that the aircrafts were in “service center condition” or used.
He also admitted that there was “no due diligence” on the PNP’s part in the anomalous 2009 transaction.
But Maptra denied fooling the PNP.
“My client has no capacity to deceive the PNP,” said lawyer Luis Rivera, Maptra’s legal counsel.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who called for the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee probe Thursday, said that the PNP accepted two older helicopters that have logged an average of 514 hours.
Based on the proposal, the PNP was to receive two Robinson R44 Raven 1 model choppers that have separately logged 367 hours and 481 hours and six minutes. But what the PNP accepted were two helicopters that have already flown for 492 and 536 hours separately.
“What was delivered eh yung mas luma pa,” Lacson said.
Plunder case
Meanwhile, Lacson said that he will meet with Guingona later to talk about the possibility of filing a plunder case with the Ombudsman regarding the overpriced choppers.
Lacson said the two choppers were already five-years old and valued at only $100,000 (roughly P4 million), based on 2004 standards, and $348,000 (roughly P17 million), by 2011 standards.
Only one of the choppers was actually brand new and would cost $348,000 or about P18 million by 2011 prices.
But the PNP bought the three aircrafts from Maptra owned by one Hilario “Larry” De Vera. for a whopping P104.9 million (or P30 million each) back in 2009.
De Vera, who was a no-show at Thursday’s hearing, will be asked by the Senate to appear on next Tuesday’s investigation.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee called an investigation into the so-called overpriced choppers to determine whether the purchase of these aircrafts during the Arroyo administration was in violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or RA 3019.
The committee said it might summon former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo after Lacson claimed that the Presidential husband used to own
one of the choppers before these were sold to the PNP.
The former First Gentleman denied Lacson’s accusations and said these were just “nothing but another sordid exercise to further malign” their name.
“This is again part of the continuing persecution to mask the lackadaisical performance of this administration to the detriment of the Filipino people,” he said in an earlier statement.
