Mechanic saves chopper engines, P34M a year

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines—Earning a basic monthly salary of P13,336, less taxes, aircraft mechanic Pablo Lasprilla Jr. may not even be aware he saves P34 million a year for the government or that he saves lives daily.

Lasprilla keeps aging aircraft of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) flying, mainly Vietnam War-vintage Huey helicopters that PAF uses for combat, rescue and relief operations that save lives.

Instead of spending at least P34 million a year for outsourced aircraft maintenance labor, government saves this much because Lasprilla and colleagues in the T53 Squadron restore helicopter engines.

They fit engines with new parts in their shop at the PAF’s 410th Maintenance Wing at the Air Force City here rather than ship these abroad for repair, said Lt. Col. Wilfredo Sanchez, commander of the 410th Maintenance Production Group.

Around here, Lasprilla is known as “the foremost expert” in overhauling Huey engines, said Sanchez.

Validating his crucial role in the PAF, the Civil Service Commission conferred on Lasprilla, 49, the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award in 2010.

“President Noynoy told me, ‘Oh, I learned that if not for you, no Hueys would fly.’ I told the President, ‘Not really, Sir.’ And we laughed,” he recalled of his brief conversation with Mr. Aquino during rites in Malacañang in October last year.

The Department of National Defense also cited Lasprilla as an exemplary employee in November.

While the squadron lost eight civilian aircraft mechanics over the last five years to high-paying jobs abroad, Lasprilla stayed in PAF with which he has worked for 17 years now.

Just how serious is he about safety? “I still think about the engines even when I’m home,” he said.

Just as difficult as his daily work is was Lasprilla’s struggle to get an education.

Born in Sagbayan, Bohol, his father eked a living out as a porter in a pier. His mother devoted her time rearing eight children.

“I finished high school but I never got to enter college because we were so poor. I took odd jobs, worked as a messenger. When my father got sick and because I was the second man in the family, I left for Metro Manila to support our entire family. I was 21 years old then,” he said.

He landed a full time job as a messenger. In between, he nursed a dream to become an aircraft mechanic, which started when he was a boy marvelling at how planes fly.

Architect Ricardo Solitario, who played basketball with him on weekends, told him about a job opening in the firm of another architect, Ernesto Cañiza, who was dreaded for being a disciplinarian.

“I didn’t care if he was like a fierce lion for as long as he would help me go back to school,” Lasprilla said of Cañiza, who hired him on the spot.

The man, Lasprilla realized, was kind to employees who diligently did their duties.

“He treated me well. He said he admired me for my determination in life. He lent me money for tuition and allowed me to leave an hour early so I could be in school on time,” he said, talking fondly of Cañiza, whose act of kindness changed his life.

On borrowed money that he paid through his salary, he enrolled at the College of Aeronautics of the Philippine Air Transport and Training Services (PATTS). It took him seven years, instead of four, to get his bachelor of science degree in aircraft technology in October 1993.

He learned from observing his civilian supervisors—Romeo Pornellos and Rosendo Comora—in his three years of on-the-job training with the 410th Maintenance Wing, then housed at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

In 1997, the PAF hired him as permanent aircraft mechanic. In 2001, PAF promoted him Aircraft Mechanic II, naming him model civilian employee in 2009. The AFP chose him as model civilian employee in 2009.

“Up to now, he reads the technical manual like a Bible to comply with standards. He really has patience,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sanchez.

The P34-million annual saving is based on the number of engines overhauled for the period and the costs of outsourced labor abroad, he said.

“Lasprilla got the skills and technical knowledge. He’s the foremost expert at T53,” said the mechanic’s immediate supervisor, 1st Lt. Reynante Buenaventura.

“He’s dedicated and loyal,” said Daniel Tataro, a civilian mechanic whose specialization is fixing rotor blades.

Sanchez and Buenaventura said Lasprilla was diagnosed with minimal pulmonary tuberculosis.

But while the hazard of work has taken its toll on Lasprilla’s health, civilian aircraft mechanics like him in the PAF are not entitled to hazard pay.