COA: Phl's lone flight school has no plane

MANILA, Philippines -  The Philippine State College of Aeronautics (PHILSCA), dubbed as the only aeronautical state institution of higher learning in the country, has no aircrafts that students can use for actual flight training.

A 2010 Commission on Audit (COA) report said the flight school had spent P14.05 million for the repairs and maintenance of two Tampico 9C planes from 2005 to 2010, which were not even used.

 The lack of planes resulted in the failure of the school to attain its goals of “providing professional and advance technological instructions and trainings” for its students, COA said.

The RP 2200 has never been used in flight trainings since 2007 as shown in the Technical Log of Flying Students…While the last flight of RP 2204 was for 45 minutes on June 2, 2008,” the COA report said.

 Records show that PHILSCA purchased the aircrafts in 1995 and 1997 for P4.799 million and P7.3 million, respectively.

State auditors called on the management of PHILSCA to reassess the costs of maintaining its two aircrafts as against the number of students enrolled.

 “Explore the need to establish tie-ups with other flying schools for students required to undertake the Basic Flight Training and the Commercial Pilot or Advance Flight Training courses,” they added.