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PASG takes on the OMB

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

07/02/2009

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has reportedly been ordered by Malacañang to vacate the huge premises it is currently occupying inside the Clark Freeport in Pampanga to give way for the expansion of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport which civil aviation authorities are priming to receive international air traffic in line with the projected closure of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport within the next few years.

Defense officials are saying the plan is for all of PAF’s operating units in Clark to be dispersed to Basa Air Base in nearby Floridablanca, Pampanga and Mactan Air Base (which was originally built by the US Air Force in the early 1960s as a staging area for Strategic Air Command bombers and C-130 cargo planes destined for the Vietnam theater) in Cebu.

To be kicked out are the 1st Air Division, 710th Special Operations Wing, 600th Air Base Wing, 420th Supply Wing, 420th Maintenance Wing, Air Force Reserve Command and Air Logistics Command.

The only thing holding this up, we are told, is the estimated P8 billion being requested by PAF headquarters to underwrite the expenses for the Clark pullout that Malacañang reportedly feels is exorbitant and therefore adamantly refuses to even consider.

In recent years, the PAF has been reduced to virtual impotency, with “zero defense capability” according to former Air Force chief Loven Abadia, due to politicking among legislators who have failed to approve the necessary funding for the modernization program of the Philippine military.

During the 1950s, the PAF was considered the most potent of its kind in the Far East with three squadrons of state-of-the-art F-5 Freedom fighters provided by the US. But that’s as far as it got, because the only jet fighters in the PAF’s arsenal today can be found in the museum in Villamor Air Base.

In an earlier interview, PAF commanding officer Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena admitted his command sadly does not possess the capability of repelling interlopers who may set foot or enter Philippine sovereign territory since it doesn’t have the hardware to do so, which is why they have shifted focus from meeting external threats to internal security operations. The only thing, he said, the PAF is capable of doing is to monitor Philippine skies from the ground.

This is probably why politicians are now treating the PAF with such disdain and have relegated it to second-class citizen status. But the question that is begging to be asked is this: Why is the government still maintaining an Air Force that cannot even kill a fly, to the tune of around P10 billion annually, when the money can be diverted to more suitable pursuits?

If, as General Rabena says, the PAF isn’t capable of meeting external threats due to a sore lack of materiel, unlike their counterparts in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia (which were non-existent during PAF’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s), and is now concentrating on internal security problems, then why don’t we turn it over to the Philippine National Police which has domain over such matters?

But then again that wouldn’t be such a good idea because politicians would lose themselves a milking cow, as well as a convenient dumping ground for their protégés.

The cushy ties that once had prevailed between the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) and the Optical Media Board (OMB) — two high-profile anti-crime units operating directly under the aegis of the Office of the President — are nothing now but just a faded memory.

These vanished in a wisp of smoke when Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr., the PASG head, announced to reporters he is asking Congress to investigate reports that certain OMB officials had agreed to a P10-million pay-off for the release of two digital video disc replicating machines seized in early April 2009 which were capable of churning out thousands of bogus discs daily.

Villar said he had also requested President Arroyo for the creation of a separate fact-finding body to ensure that the perpetrators of the felony would be unmasked and formally charged in court, inasmuch as these OMB dickheads had powerful political connections of their own.

The two replicating machines, estimated to be worth around P100 million, were confiscated in the course of a raid conducted by a joint PASG-OMB team on a warehouse in Barangay San Antonio, San Francisco del Monte, QC allegedly rented by a Malaysian national together with several Filipino cohorts.

The PASG chief blew his top upon being informed that the machines, which were placed under the custody of the OMB on April 3, 2009, had been forcibly taken from the warehouse last June 16 by several unidentified government agents who were being aided by QC policemen.

Records show that the same warehouse, which was actually a clandestine DVD disc factory, had already been raided several years ago by Sen. Bong Revilla, who was then the OMB chairman. For obvious reasons, it managed to continue operating until it was finally shuttered by the PASG-OMB team on April 2, 2009.

Villar appears to be on a tear. Just two weeks ago, he instructed his lawyers to file criminal charges against Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales and some of his men for alleged large-scale oil smuggling. He claimed Morales et. al. had aided Jetti Supply Distribution Inc. (JDSI) in evading payment of some P288 million in taxes in the past two years. JDSI is an oil importer operating within the Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corp. economic zone in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

In the complaint sheet, the PASG said respondents violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and fraud under Article 214 of the Revised Penal Code.