The UH-1D chopper that crashed in Tanay, Rizal, on Thursday, killing the pilot and two crew members, was among the defective helicopter shipment foisted upon the Philippine Air Force (PAF) by then Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin during the administration of President Noynoy Kuyakoy.
Another chopper from the same batch crash-landed after catching fire over Sarangani province in November last year. Fortunately, no one was injured in that crash.
A total of 13 choppers were bought from Rice Aircraft Services, a run-of-the-mill aircraft maker in California, at a cost of P2.1 billion.
They were pieces of junk scavenged from a junkyard of the German military, shipped to the Rice Aircraft hangar, pieced together into helicopters, and then delivered to the PAF, according to whistleblower Dory Alvarez, former Rice Aircraft representative in the country.
Alvarez, an employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), said the helicopters underwent further repairs at the PAF base inside the Clark Economic Zone in Angeles City.
There was public furor over the Alvarez exposé, which led to an investigation by the Senate blue ribbon committee.
But the committee, under then Sen. TJ Guingona, never reached a resolution.
Aside from Gazmin, the others who allegedly financially benefited from the purchase were then Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo, former Defense Assistant Secretary Patrick Velez, then Brig. Gen. Conrado Parra, and then PAF chief Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Delgado, according to Alvarez.
Parra, then chair of the Air Force technical working group that received the choppers, is now PAF vice commander.
Since Gazmin and Noynoy are no longer around, there’s no reason for the Air Force to continue flying those junk choppers.
The Senate should reopen the investigation and file charges against those respon
sible.
Must there be loss of more soldiers’ lives before those junk choppers are grounded?
Alvarez was then placed by Guingona under the Witness Protection Program.
But she’s no longer under the protective mantle of the government.
Some motorcycle-riding gunman might just pop a few rounds to silence her.
Lawyer Nasser Abinal, the BIR’s revenue district officer (RDO) in Manila, was allegedly the target of the bomb placed inside a box which exploded in his office premises in the Muslim area of Quiapo, Manila.
Abinal’s office as RDO is in Intramuros, far from the bomb explosion.
Why does Abinal still hold office in the Muslim area in Quiapo when he’s a BIR official with an office in Intramuros?
Do you get the drift?