CAAP cannot be trusted to investigate crash!

We’ve been hearing a lot of news reports about the plane crash that took the lives of DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, Capt. Jessup Bahinting and his co-pilot Kshitiz Chand, which have been dropped by anonymous sources from officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). One such rumor was published as the headline of The Freeman (it also appeared in the front page of The Philippine Star) last Sunday which blared, “Bahinting carried expired license.” This report was vehemently denied by Aviatours management and they said that they could prove it.

Then yesterday, The Freeman came up with a banner story, “Bahinting had a valid license.” Apparently, Capt. Jessup applied for a renewal of his license last April 24, 2012, which was released on May 2, 2012. Now if we renewed our driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) but the employees did not encode our license, it is now their fault why their records would show that you still had an expired license. The same is true with Capt. Jessup’s pilot license. Clearly, this is an attempt to besmirch the reputation of Capt. Jessup by unseen elements inside the CAAP.

Perhaps CAAP Chairman William Hotchkiss, III ought to conduct an internal investigation as to why certain unnamed CAAP personnel were out to discredit Capt. Bahinting, who can no longer respond to their criticism. Why can’t these people wait until the CAAP has come up with a finished report on why the Piper Seneca II crashed last Aug. 18 in Masbate?

Meanwhile, last Sunday, The Philippine Star came up with an editorial entitled “Passenger Safety First,” which, in my view, sounds like a broken record. We’ve just too many maritime disasters from the sinking of Doña Paz to the Doña Marilyn all the way to the Princess of the Stars to get that ignominious honor of being called the “Maritime Disaster Capital of the World.” This is not to mention the so many bus accidents, like the death of some 50 Iranian medical students in Transcentral Highway in 2010 and now, we’re having problems in the aviation industry. When will this nation truly give the passenger some kind of utmost importance? I don’t know.

With so many rumors being spread by anonymous CAAP officials from a broken emergency transmitter to the use of “bad” fuel, this issue has now strengthened my resolve for Congress to propose a law creating the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), which can investigate air, land and sea accidents. More so now because we can no longer trust the CAAP to do an independent investigation of the Robredo crash.

At this point, may I suggest to DOTC Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas to come up with an ad hoc investigating body composed of former pilots and aircraft mechanics in order to get into the bottom of why the Piper Seneca II crashed. If Sec. Mar Roxas does this, he would truly be a service to our people who only want the truth.

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No doubt, the death of DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo got our focus away from one of most telling incidents that happened in our country that week. I’m referring to the scathing attack by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano last week that questioned the extravagance of the furniture purchased for the refurbishing of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) mansion in Baguio City. First of all, I don’t know why Comelec officials should have a mansion in the first place, when their only work comes once every three years, during election time.

Sen. Cayetano was appalled that the Paula Furniture in Angeles City was awarded a contract of P3.350 million for beds. A king sized bed was priced at P91,250.00 while a Queen sized bed was at 84,600.00. These are just the big-ticket items; there are still many other furniture like tables and chairs that also look like they were overpriced. When someone queried Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes about this, he merely said, “Of course someone has to be held liable, but I don’t know if there is an anomaly because it is not overpriced; it is just that it’s luxurious.”

At this point, what I’m truly surprised about in this issue of extravagance or corruption is that we haven’t heard a peep from the Office of the Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales? Of course she knows too well that the Comelec Chief was once the legal beagle of the Liberal Party (LP) and was appointed by Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. Is she telling us that the Comelec Chair is beyond the reach of the law?

What we are seeing here are corruption practices done by Comelec officials, the very agency responsible for giving our nation clean and honest elections. It is for this reason why we questioned their purchase of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), which in my book is also overpriced.

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