With 2 years left in office, Aquino proud of accomplishments

AIR SHOW Emitting smoke in celebratory colors, trainer planes perform aerobatics during the 67th anniversary of the Philippine Air Force held at Haribon Hangar in Air Force City, Clark Air Base, Pampanga province, on Tuesday. President Aquino was the special guest and keynote speaker. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines—With only two years left in office, President Aquino said he was proud of being the leader of a country doing what was right and showing the world that it could face any challenge as one nation, as much as he was proud of his achievements as Chief Executive in the past four years.

In his speech at the 67th founding anniversary of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), Aquino also took pride in the strides made to modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as well as in the completion of thousands of badly needed classrooms across the country.

Later at a press conference, he said that there were times when he felt proud of his administration’s accomplishments.

“If there is a singular legacy that I am leaving, hopefully, it is for people to be used to the idea that government can be run honestly. And whoever will succeed us, of course, this is the platform, the base where he would begin,” Aquino said in Filipino at rites where he was treated to a 10-minute air show.

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK Presidnet Aquino speaks at the 67th anniversary rites of the Philippine Air Force on Tuesday as the high court declares the DAP unconstitutional and Nora Aunor gets a lot of sympathy. GRIG MONTEGRANDE

He said building more than 66,000 classrooms was something that appeared difficult to accomplish within a time frame suitable for the K-12 program but the government achieved it.

“We have the wherewithal now to support the K-12 program, which will need more classrooms, teachers, desks, etcetera,” he said.

Aquino also mentioned some infrastructure projects, such as the TPLEx up to Carmen, Rosales, and another connector between NLEx and SLEx.

He said a number of airports like the Laguindingan airport in Misamis Oriental would have night-flying capabilities.

“Maybe the thoughts are, when we started we inherited all the problems, we didn’t have the wherewithal. We didn’t have the capability to fix all these problems. And if we look back on the past four years, we have had quite a number of accomplishments that we didn’t think would happen,” he said.

Aquino noted that the Air Force, for one, had been able to upgrade its capabilities in addressing natural disasters and conflicts.

“It is clear that in our journey on the straight path, our goal is to correct the wrong system of running things so we can again reach the soaring victory that has become the brand of our Air Force. This is our motivation to push a meaningful reform of our Armed Forces,” he told a crowd of 200 military and police officials led by Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, Armed Forces chief of staff; and Director General Alan Purisima, Philippine National Police director.

The Aquino administration has made AFP modernization one of its priorities, brought about by China’s belligerence in the West Philippine Sea.

The President boasted of the recent acquisitions for the Air Force—two additional C-130s; eight basic trainer aircraft; eight Sokol combat utility helicopters; 20 upgraded MD-520 MG helicopters; and 21 UH-1H helicopters, four of which had already been delivered.

He said he expected the 17 other Hueys to arrive this year.

Aquino added that in the pipeline was the purchase of eight combat utility helicopters, two long-range patrol aircraft, six close-air support aircraft, radar systems and other equipment that would improve the Air Force’s capability.

He said he was looking forward to the delivery of 12 FA-50 lead-in fighter trainer planes from South Korea beginning 2015 up to 2017. These, he said, would replace the PAF’s fighter jets that were retired in 2005.

“When our own FA-50 jets land on our backyard, we will again have the capability to defend our territory in a more effective way,” he said.

He traced the service command’s golden years through its war exploits until the time that its air assets dwindled and fell far behind the other air force commands in the region.

He said that despite the lack of materiel, the Air Force maintained its professionalism, courage and resilience.

He noted that the Air Force, which used to be recognized as the strongest in Asia, failed to “take off” because of several decades of corruption and neglect.

“It appeared that the state of the Air Force mirrored the grave state of our society because of a crooked leadership,” the President said.

Aquino thanked Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and AFP officials for supporting the modernization program.

He also thanked the PAF for moving personnel and equipment to Zamboanga City during a siege there by a faction loyal to Moro National Liberation Front leader Nur Misuari last year and for being a reliable force in assisting victims of disasters.

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