Two things stood out in the five-hour hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday.
First, the specifications of the helicopters that the Philippine National Police needed were altered apparently to accommodate the choppers that allegedly belonged to Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, according to Sen. Franklin Drilon.
Second, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pointed to a “conspiracy to cover up” the real owner of the second-hand helicopters that were eventually sold to the PNP as brand new.
“From the very start there was really a deliberate effort to allow or enable the purchase by PNP of the Raven helicopters of Mike Arroyo,” Drilon said at the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee.
The PNP bought for P105 million in 2009 three helicopters, including two used ones (Robinson Raven Is) believed to be owned by Arroyo that were passed off as brand new. The committee found out that the price of a new Raven I helicopter is P20 million.
Arroyo, husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has denied that he owned the two used helicopters. He was a no-show at the hearing, citing health reasons.
Documents furnished the Inquirer by Drilon’s office showed that the specs for the helicopters were altered to accommodate secondhand ones even before the first formal bidding.
Drilon said after the hearing that the PNP uniform and equipment standardization board (UESB) issued Resolution 2008-01 dated Feb. 11, 2008, stating that the police needed light helicopters with a minimum speed of 110 knots, a minimum range of 229 miles and a minimum height capability of 12,000 feet.
The resolution said the Aviation Security Group prescribed the specifications for a two-seater single engine to be used for training, patrol and traffic monitoring; a six-seater single engine for patrol, fire fighting, “sling-cargo operation” and administration, and a five-seater for patrol, evacuation, surveillance and VIP/troop transport.
Chief Supt. Leocadio Santiago, director of the Special Action Force, which was identified as an “end user” of the aircraft, was among the signatories to the resolution.
The UESB amended the specifications on April 9 in Resolution 2008-16. It said that after “a thorough review and further evaluation,” it was changing the proposed standard specifications for light police operational helicopters “to a lower speed of 100 knots, a higher range of 300 miles and height capability of 14,000 feet.”
Signed by Puno, Razon
The resolution contained the same set of signatories. The new specifications were repeated in Resolution 2008-260 issued by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) on May 5, 2008.
The resolution was signed by then Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno as Napolcom chair and then PNP Director General Avelino Razon as commissioner.
Drilon noted that due to these alterations, only the Robinson R-44 Raven I helicopters later offered by Lionair Inc. through its agent, Manila Aerospace Products Trading (Maptra), qualified.
Tailor-fit
Drilon said another bidder, Beeline, offered Enstrom 280FX and Enstrom F28F helicopters. But these only had a cruise speed of 75 knots; a maximum range of 263.5 miles and a height capability of 12,000 feet.
“The specifications made in April, in effect, disqualified other helicopters so that only Raven I was admitted. The effort to tailor-fit the specifications to Raven I is very, very clear,” the senator said during the five-hour hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday.
“In fact, the original specification would have disqualified Raven I but they (PNP officials) amended the specifications para swak na swak (so they would be a perfect fit),” Drilon noted.
“It is quite obvious what the pattern was—to tailor-fit the specifications in order that Raven I will be the only equipment that will qualify because Enstrom supplied by Beeline would not qualify (under the new specifications),” he said at the hearing.
The PNP eventually purchased three helicopters from Maptra—one brand new Robinson R-44 Raven II and two secondhand Raven Is. It was Sen. Panfilo Lacson who initially called attention to the purchase since the PNP paid the full price for the secondhand units.
Maintenance fees
So far, at least five civilian resource persons called by the Senate panel have either identified or claimed hearing that Arroyo owned the helicopters.
They include Archibald Po, owner of Lionair Inc., who claimed he once maintained the choppers sold to the PNP for Arroyo; Lionair general manager Rene Sia, Lionair collections agent Edith Solano-Juguan and former Lionair dispatcher Domingo Lazo.
Juguan said under oath on Thursday that she regularly collected the monthly maintenance fees that Lionair charged Arroyo from his office at the LTA Building on Perea Street in Makati City.
She said the monthly charges averaged P350,000. On one occasion, however, the bill reached P1 million when helicopter parts were replaced with new ones.
Juguan said all accounts were paid in cash handed to her by Arroyo’s assistant, Rowena del Rosario.
Lazo in turn, told senators that while working as a Lionair dispatcher from 2004 to 2009, he received direct instructions via text messages from Arroyo himself about flight schedules and the names of passengers he was allowing to use his helicopters.
A fifth witness, Maptra president and managing head Hilario de Vera, claimed in his testimony on Aug. 2 that Po, on several occasions during the PNP bidding process, consistently dropped the name “FG,” a popular reference to Arroyo, in an attempt to pressure him to dispose of the two secondhand choppers he later sold to the police.
No-show
Arroyo’s lawyer, Inocencio Ferrer, sent the blue ribbon committee a letter saying that Arroyo’s doctors had advised him not to attend “because of his serious heart ailment.”
“The physicians have cautioned my client that the presence of another tear or dissection in his heart could cause his sudden death,” the letter said.
Ferrer said Arroyo was willing to be checked “in any hospital, where his medical records are readily available.”
The lawyer added that Arroyo was attending to his wife, whose second operation last Wednesday failed.
Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the blue ribbon committee, said he would direct a Senate doctor to “examine the veracity of Mike Arroyo’s medical condition.”
At the start of hearing, Guingona made a statement directly addressing Arroyo.
“After telling your detractors that you are back, why don’t you face your detractors? Come to the Senate and prove that the people behind the statements are lying,” he challenged Arroyo.
“Now that you are back, let us ask you after you take your oath that only the truth will come out of your mouth. Look at us straight in the eye. Do not hide behind a medical certificate,” the senator added.
Donate choppers
As this developed, senators have asked Po whether he was willing to give up the two other Raven I helicopters languishing in the Lionair hangar to the government.
“If it is legal to do so, that should not be a problem. But how can I donate something that is not mine,” Po told senators.
“You are the registered owner so you can donate (them),” Guingona said.
Drilon suggested that Arroyo, since he denies ownership of the choppers, be asked to issue an undertaking he would hold Po “free and harmless from any action if Mr. Po would donate these to any agency of the government, particularly the PNP.”
Cover-up
The conspiracy to conceal the real owner of the secondhand helicopters sold to the PNP was so evident that frustrated senators asked officials in the know to speak out and spare the innocent.
“There’s a cover-up. That’s very, very clear because their answers border on the ridiculous. It’s already absurd,” Guingona said after the hearing.
Enrile almost lost his cool while grilling a resident auditor of the PNP.
“The contract (requires) brand-new (helicopters) but you just accepted the report of your people without reading it,” Enrile snapped at Jaime Sanares, PNP resident auditor.
Enrile was reacting to Sanares’ claim that when he confronted subordinates who inspected the two Robinson R-44 Raven I choppers, he was told that the choppers really looked brand new.
“You yourself as head could have checked the condition, whether they are really brand new. And auditors are sharp people supposedly? My God! I have to tell you the truth. My impression now in this particular case is that there is a conspiracy to cover up something,” the Senate President said.
Verzosa
At one point, Sen. Antonio Trillanes urged former PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa, under whose watch the secondhand helicopters were bought, to disclose the story behind the transaction finalized in 2009.
“At every step of way, the commander is informed especially with such a major transaction of P105 million. You cannot pass the buck to your subordinates. If you stood up and said, ‘no I cannot allow this to proceed,’ all your subordinates would have been spared,” Trillanes said.
Verzosa would only admit that “some lapses” might have occurred in the procurement process.
Guingona said the fact that the PNP transacted with Maptra was already irregular because its accreditation as supplier had lapsed at the time the purchase contract was signed in July 2009.