PAF clarifies report

What boycott?

The Philippine Air Force (PAF), in a statement yesterday, said this was the common reaction of hundreds of alumni of the PAF Flying School who attended last Saturday’s 19th homecoming at the Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas.

The PAF was reacting to The STAR’s report that a group of active and retired military and commercial aviation pilots boycotted the event to dramatize their call for the resumption of the PAF Aviation Cadet Program.

The boycotting group, led by retired PAF Capt. Amado Soliman, scored the PAF leadership under Lt. Gen. Benjamin Defensor for "stonewalling" the program’s resumption despite an earlier order from President Arroyo.

The PAF said Soliman’s group was "obviously or intentionally misinformed," explaining that the resumption of the Aviation Cadet Program "had already been announced, the issues explained and actions have been taken to start procurement."

PAF spokesman Col. Jose Angel Honrado said it was former PAF chief Lt. Gen. William Hotchkiss III, himself a former aviation cadet, not Ar—nulfo Acedera, who scrapped the program in 1998 in favor of the now established PAF Officers Candidate School (OCS).

The PAF said Lt. Gen. Willie Florendo, another former aviation cadet, continued the OCS, seeing the logic and rationale of the program which "not only trains students to become pilots but to become ground officers in case they don’t qualify for flying."

When President Arroyo stated last year that she wanted the Aviation Cadet Program continued, the PAF said five classes were already on the block – Philippine Military Academy Classes 2000 and 2001 and OCS Classes 99B, 2000A and 2000B.

"Right now, there are 266 students waiting in line, and under present conditions, the PAF can only train 50 students per class," the PAF said.