What Went Before: The secondhand helicopter controversy
In May 2009, the Philippine National Police (PNP) negotiated with Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp. (Maptra) for the purchase of three new helicopters for its Special Action Force.
The purchase order worth P105 million was approved and signed by then PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa on Sept. 22, 2009.
On July 4, 2011, Senator Panfilo Lacson alleged in a speech that two of the helicopters were not brand-new as was supposedly made to appear in the purchase agreement. He claimed that they were preowned by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, with flight logs recorded as far back as March 2004.
Subsequently, Lacson, along with Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee, filed Senate Resolution No. 518 asking for an investigation of the sale.
Amid the controversy, the PNP put the two Robinson R44 Raven I helicopters out of commission. The PNP also denied knowing about the condition of the choppers and demanded that the supplier replace them with brand-new units.
Mike Arroyo denied Lacson’s allegations, but on July 18, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said at a news briefing that the flight logs of the helicopters showed Gloria Arroyo’s immediate family, particularly Mike and his elder son, Ang Galing Pinoy Representative Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, virtually controlled the use of the helicopters, based on their frequent trips.
Records also showed that the helicopters were previously registered to the Asian Spirit Inc. which leased them to Lionair Inc. in 2004. Lionair is the exclusive distributor of Robinson helicopters in the country. Maptra was Lionair’s marketing agent in the bidding for helicopters at the PNP.
First hearing
On July 28, the Senate conducted its first hearing on the controversy with PNP officers responsible for the purchase of the aircraft either washing their hands of the issue or passing the buck.
On August 2, Maptra president Hilario de Vera told the Senate that Archibald Po, owner of Lionair Inc., had pressured him into selling the two secondhand helicopters to the PNP allegedly at Mike Arroyo’s behest.
Po admitted facilitating Mike’s purchase of five Robinson R44 Raven I helicopters months before the 2004 presidential election. Po said the aircraft was for the election campaign of then President Arroyo. The businessman said he was asked to sign a blank deed of assignment after Mike Arroyo completed payments for the choppers.
Po said he delivered $700,000 in cash to Mike Arroyo at the LTA Building in Makati City after Maptra paid Lionair P40 million for the two used helicopters.
Senators surmised that at the going rate of P45:$1 at the time, Arroyo received an equivalent of P31.5 million in cash.
Po added that two choppers were still in the Lionair hangar in Pasay City as the two others had been sold to the PNP. A fifth helicopter crashed in 2007.
Mike, through his lawyer, denied ownership of the choppers and later filed perjury charges against Po.
On Aug. 4, the Department of Justice, following a formal request from Guingona, put Mike Arroyo on the Bureau of Immigration watch list. The Senate invited him to attend the investigation, but the latter declined, citing health reasons.
Specs altered
At the August 11 hearing, the Senate noted that the specifications of the helicopters that the PNP needed were altered to accommodate Arroyo’s choppers. The resolution for the new specifications was signed by then Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno as National Police Commission chair and then PNP Director General Avelino Razon as Napolcom commissioner.
The Senate also pointed to a conspiracy to cover up the real owner of the used choppers.
On August 12, Mike, through his lawyer, asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction on the implementation of the watch list order.
On August 15, Mike’s brother, Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, through his lawyer, presented a document showing that LTA Inc., the family-owned company of the Arroyos, merely leased five helicopters from Lionair for two months in 2004. He also said the choppers belonged to Po.
Iggy, who was seeking treatment in London for a liver ailment, said that he was the president of LTA Inc. when the lease agreement was signed with Lionair and that his elder brother “was not part of our company during those material dates.” He added that his brother divested himself of his shares in LTA Inc. in March 2001.
The Senate asked Iggy to appear before the body to prove his claims, but to no avail.
Incredulous
At the August 22 hearing, Rowena del Rosario, a former bookkeeper of LTA, claimed that Iggy paid at least P18 million in cash for the lease of the helicopters from Lionair Inc. but the transactions were not recorded in the books of LTA Inc.
Her incredulous statements led the committee to order her detention in the Senate, only to be freed three days after.
At the same hearing, Edith Solano-Juguan, a marketing executive of Lionair, told senators that when she went to collect the payments for maintenance of the remaining two choppers at the LTA building once a month, she often saw Mike and rarely caught a glimpse of Iggy.
On August 23, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, temporarily halted the implementation of a watch list order against Mike. He was eventually removed from the watch list order after the Senate decided to excuse him from the hearings for health reasons.
PNP case
On September 2, the PNP antifraud division chief, Senior Superintendent Edgar Danao, filed plunder charges against Mike and 25 others in the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to the chopper scam.
Other respondents include Verzosa, Puno, retired and active police officials, and executives of the companies that supplied the choppers. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research
Sources: Inquirer Archives
