DOTC still finalizing report on Robredo plane crash

MANILA, Philippines - Forty days after the plane crash that killed Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, details of the investigation into the accident that also killed the two pilots have yet to be finalized.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas III, who was transportation and communications secretary at the time of Robredo’s death, told The STAR at the sidelines of the Liberal Party-led coalition proclamation of senatorial candidates at Club Filipino last Monday that the team is still “finalizing” the report of its probe.

“They are finalizing. Maybe the best is really to wait for them to finish the report,” he said.

Earlier, Roxas said he would not give a deadline for the investigating team to make sure that every detail of the probe would be accurate and based on evidence.

Last Friday, President Aquino named John Cu Unjieng Andrews deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to replace his father, retired Air Force Capt. John Roa Andrews.

The elder Andrews caught the ire of Roxas after he announced during a meeting with Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., congressional oversight committee on CAAP head, that the special investigating team has “established that there is no foul play” in the Robredo plane crash.

Captain Andrews said the Piper Seneca plane that carried Robredo was manufactured in 1972.

“Maybe it was an accident that was waiting to happen,” he said.

Captain Andrews said the CAAP panel was looking into engine failure as a possible angle in the crash.