Marcos on riding fighter jet: Fantastic experience

MANILA, Philippines — Fulfilling a longtime dream, President Marcos described yesterday his experience flying in a fighter jet in Pampanga as “fantastic.”

The President, wearing a flight suit, boarded an FA-50PH fighter jet for capability demonstration flight after attending the acceptance, turnover and blessing ceremony of the Air Force’s C-295 medium lift aircraft and FA-50PH flight demonstration capability at Clark Air Base in Pampanga on Tuesday.

The President was given the code name “Lawin” by the Air Force.

“It was a fantastic experience that I’m sure everybody – I received a lot of text messages, ‘nakakainggit ka’ (I envy you). It’s really very – it is a very unusual and much desired experience for all of us. So I’m very happy I was able to do it,” Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of the Kadiwa ng Pangulo para sa Manggagawa launch in Quezon City.

“I’ve been wanting to do that but I didn’t become a pilot. So I took advantage,” he said.

“Because I mentioned that when the fighter jets were flying when we were coming home from (foreign) visits that it might be nice to ride at least. So I was granted that,” Marcos added.

The Chief Executive also commended the country’s pilots.

“I was worried I might get dizzy... but I didn’t, my pilot is good, he didn’t make it hard for me,” he said.

Marcos said they flew over the coastline of Zambales.

“Our pilots are great. That’s why we have to continue to encourage the modernization of our Armed Forces so their capabilities would be strengthened,” he said.

“And we saw some of the capabilities that were demonstrated to me during the flight and we can see how important this increase in our capabilities is going to be, especially in the defense of our maritime territory,” the commander-in-chief noted.