Thursday, August 11, 2011
FINANCIAL documents presented at a Senate hearing Thursday indicated helicopters bought by the Philippine National Police (PNP) as brand-new units in 2009 had been paid for and used by lawyer Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo.
Rene Sia, general manager of Lionair Inc., showed senators records of a wire transfer from a Banco De Oro branch in Makati City to Robinson Helicopter Co. in the amount of $500,000. He said this was a down payment for five helicopters that Arroyo bought for the presidential elections in 2004. Sia said the money came from LTA Inc., a company owned by Arroyo, husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Senator Panfilo Lacson asked him to confirm whether LTA Inc.--for Lourdes T. Arroyo--had its office at the LTA building on Perea St. in
Makati City. Sia said it did.
Sia also said LTA told Lionair president Archibald Po to open a Union Bank account in its Richville branch in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. He then showed credit memos documenting the payments for the helicopters.
Arroyo, who missed the hearing due to poor health, has repeatedly denied owning the helicopters. He filed a perjury complaint against Po
Wednesday afternoon, saying Po's lies had caused him "undue stress."
Domingo Lazo, who used to work as a flight dispatcher for Lionair, later testified that he arranged flights for Arroyo and son then Pampanga Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo. Lazo was with Lionair until 2009, the same year the helicopters were sold to the PNP.
He said Po told him that Arroyo owned the helicopters. Two other witnesses, former pilots for Lionair, confirmed flying Arroyo but could not say if he owned the helicopters.
In previous hearings, Police Superintendent Claudio Gaspar Jr. testified that he had flown the helicopters before, as early as 2004.
He said that he had been detailed to the Office of the President and that he had flown members of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's family.
Arroyo skips hearing for heart's sake
Arroyo, who had been invited to the Thursday hearing, stayed away from the Senate, citing poor health.
A letter submitted to the Senate blue ribbon committee by Arroyo's lawyer Innocencio Ferrer said Mr. Arroyo would not be able to attend. He said Dr. Lorenzo Cariño, Arroyo's physician, certified that Mr. Arroyo is not healthy enough to testify.
Arroyo has been diagnosed with dissecting aortic aneurysm and was in Hong Kong last week for a medical checkup. He had to undergo a 10-hour open-heart surgery in 2007 for his heart problem.
Cariño said Arroyo could die if he develops a new tear in his aorta. Arroyo is willing to undergo examination by government doctors, his lawyer said.
Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, urged Arroyo to face senators and explain how the allegations hurled against him are just lies.
"I hope we (meaning Arroyo) don't hide behind a medical certificate just to avoid coming to the Senate," he added.
But Dr. Mariano Blancia, head doctor at the Senate, later said Arroyo's medical certificate is valid. He said that he already met with Arroyo's cardiologist, Dr. Jose Nicholas Cruz at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City.
Blancia said that Arroyo's blood vessels might tear if he is subjected to the stress of testifying.
The final assessment on Arroyo's health will come from Dr. Manuel Chua Chiaco, executive director of the government-owned Philippine Heart Center.
Guingona, in a press conference after the hearing, said that if Arroyo's reason for missing the hearings is valid, "we will respect it."
Ex-PNP chief also liable
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, meanwhile, chided former police chief Jesus Versoza for allowing the purchase of helicopters that turned out to be second hand, saying he should not have authorized the P105-million deal without checking that the units were factory fresh.
According to Trillanes, a former Navy procurement officer, it was impossible for Versoza to not know that the helicopters were not brand new.
But Versoza said he had presumed regularity on the part.
He explained that the Philippine National Police was a large organizations with "so many boards and committees" and that as police chief at the time of the purchase, he assumed that his subordinates had done their jobs.
Raul Bacalzo, current PNP director general, earlier told Trillanes that an internal police investigation did not include Versoza. He said he did not want to preempt the police fact-finding team but said that "perhaps they saw that (Versoza) was not involved in the negotiations (for the helicopters)."
Trillanes said that any police finding that excluded Versoza would "not be acceptable" to the committee.
The senator urged Versoza to tell the Senate blue ribbon committee what he knew and not let his subordinates take the blame for the deal. Versoza insisted, however, that he thought the purchase was above board.
Bacalzo said the PNP is already reviewing its procurement procedures and the composition of its bidding and awards committees. He added the
PNP will revise guidelines on who should conduct inspections of purchases and make sure that technical experts are on their inspection teams.
In recent hearings, it was found that the inspection team that checked three Robinson Raven helicopters sold to the PNP only had a few pilots. Others on the inspection team had not even seen the helicopters first-hand and only signed the inspection report.
Aside from being pre-owned, the helicopters did not have airconditioning unit, a requirement on the project contract.
Police Director Leocadio Santiago Jr., then commanding officer of the PNP Special Action Force that received the helicopters, said requirements for the project had been revised by order of the National Police Commission.