Businessman expected to show proof of Mike Arroyo ownership of used choppers

CON AIR A Robinson R-44 Raven helicopter is parked at the PNP hangar in the Manila International Airport Authority compound in Pasay City on Monday. The helicopters were passed off as brand new and sold to the police. JESS YUSON

“Mr. Archibald Po of Lionair has confirmed that he will attend the blue ribbon committee hearing (Tuesday) on the alleged anomalous purchase of helicopters by the PNP,” Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the committee, said in a text message.

Po is apparently the “Mr. Archibald” that Supt. Claudio Gaspar referred to as the Lionair executive who previously owned the two Robinson R44 Raven I helicopters.

In his testimony on Thursday, Gaspar said Arroyo and his son, former Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, were his frequent passengers from 2004 until the two choppers were sold as brand new to the PNP in 2009.

Previous reports said Lionair sold the second-hand helicopters to the PNP using Manila Aerospace Trading (Maptra) as its agent.

Guingona said the blue ribbon committee hoped that Po “can shed light particularly on the ownership of the two helicopters which have been passed off as brand new and paid as such when these choppers were actually more than five years old when acquired by the PNP.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada on Sunday showed the Inquirer documents, including flight logs and e-mail communications, which Po had provided to prove that the Arroyo father and son had frequently used the two helicopters.

Estrada said Po added that the elder Arroyo kept “blank deeds of sale” that proved his purchase of five helicopters from Lionair.

Quoting Po, Estrada said the two helicopters sold to the PNP were part of a fleet of five that Arroyo purchased in 2004 for the campaign sorties of his wife, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

At the hearing last week, Sen. Panfilo Lacson showed papers indicating that Maptra had advised the PNP that it would sell two “service-center conditioned” choppers, which meant the units to be sold were second hand.

But PNP officers who appeared at the hearing all insisted that they did not know this information and had paid brand new rates for the two units, along with a brand new Robinson R44 Raven II for a total of P105 million.