Senator Teofisto Guingona III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Senate blue ribbon committee has recommended amendments to the laws on government procurement as a result of its investigation into the purchase by the Philippine National Police (PNP) of used helicopters that were passed off as brand new.
More specifically, blue ribbon chairman Teofisto Guingona III wants an amendment to the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act that would allow the government to recover “properties unlawfully acquired” by private persons despite the passage of time.
He also proposed improving the Government Procurement Reform Act to bar unqualified suppliers from bidding for government projects.
Committee report
The recommendations were contained in a committee report stemming from the Senate investigation into the PNP’s purchase in 2009 of two Raven I R-44 helicopters that in reality were owned by former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, according to witnesses in the Senate inquiry.
The hearings brought out that Arroyo had sold the choppers through Archibald Po of Lionair Inc., who in turn used Hilario de Vera of Manila Aerospace Trading Inc. (Maptra) as an agent to bid for the contract to supply the PNP with three new helicopters.
It also came out during the inquiry that Arroyo had purchased five Raven I R-44 helicopters from Lionair in 2003 for the election campaign of his wife, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in 2004.
One of the choppers crashed while two ended up being bought by the PNP in 2009 from Lionair through Maptra. This despite testimony at the hearings that some police officers knew all along that the aircraft were not new.
Arroyo and several ranking PNP officers, led by then Director General Jesus Verzosa, have been charged with graft in the Office of the Ombudsman by Guingona and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Aquilino Pimentel III.
Mike Arroyo’s choppers
The committee report said the PNP was looking to purchase three new helicopters but its officers were pressured into settling for two of Arroyo’s choppers along with one brand new unit from Lionair.
To establish Arroyo’s ownership, the committee cited the testimony of Supt. Claudio Gaspar who admitted flying the former first gentleman and his son, then Pampanga Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo, around Luzon after the 2004 campaign until the helicopters were bought by the PNP.
Po’s secretary, Editha Solano-Juguan, testified that she collected a monthly maintenance and management fee from Arroyo for the five helicopters that were parked in the Lionair hangar in Pasay City.
Provision needed
The blue ribbon committee said there was a need for “a provision that says the right of the state to recover properties unlawfully acquired should not be barred by the passage of time.”
This was a reference to the government’s failure to recover the two remaining Raven I R-44 helicopters in the Lionair hangar that Arroyo has denied were his.
While Arroyo has not attempted to claim the choppers, the government is not allowed to arbitrarily seize them for the state.
The committee recommended that agents like Maptra, whose license as a procurement agent for the PNP had long expired, be barred from participating in bids for government projects.