'Whistle-blower' has P.2-M unliquidated advances, says CAAP

MANILA, Philippines - An employee who claims to have blown the whistle on anomalies in the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has more than P200,000 in cash advances he has yet to liquidate, a CAAP official said yesterday.

CAAP director general Ramon Gutierrez said Cesar Lucero, who was recently transferred from the agency’s security and intelligence service to the Puerto Princesa airport, has not liquidated more than P217,000 over several years.

Lucero, the CAAP Employee’s Union vice president, protested his transfer since he is on “floating status” at the Puerto Princesa airport. Gutierrez said he thought transferring Lucero to his hometown would enable him to resolve his alleged family and marital problems.

“How can he fix this agency (CAAP) when he can’t fix his own family?” Gutierrez told The STAR in a recent interview.

Lucero admitted that he had accumulated the cash advances, but said he can settle his debt if he cannot locate the necessary documents and official receipts.

He said he had racked up the huge advances when he conducted field investigation work during the time when the CAAP was still the Air Transportation Office (ATO) and he was tasked to check on the multi-million land purchases being made by the ATO and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for previous airport development projects in various provinces all over the country.

He said that for his efforts, he was given an award in 2005 by then ATO chief Nilo Jatico for discovering a spurious P41-million claim on a tract of land where a domestic airport was built by the ATO.