Palace shopping around for new jet for Arroyo

MANILA – Malacanang is shopping around for a new passenger jet for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at a time when the embattled woman leader is being bombarded with criticisms for her “lavish” dinners while on a working visit to the US.

The planned purchase was brought into the open when Malacanang came out with a paid advertisement on Thursday in the “Philippine Star,” one of the country’s leading dailies, that it is holding a public bidding for the presidential jet which will cost the equivalent of close to $55 million.

The ad specified that the aircraft be a “fixed wing executive jet” that must be factory new, with two turbo-fan engines, pressurized and equipped with avionics and instruments that are prescribed and compliant with the standards set by US Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Malacanang said it expects the plane to be delivered at the end of the year following the bidding process that starts in August.

The Palace announcement coincided with the increasing criticisms regarding the expensive dinners that President Arroyo and her large entourage had in Washington DC and New York while on a working visit to the US, which was highlighted by her meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House on July 30.

The “New York Post” reported that the President and her party dined at the upscale Le Cirque restaurant in New York where the tab reached $20,000 or the equivalent of one million in the Philippine peso currency, including an order for five bottles of Krug champagne which cost more than $500 each.

On the other hand, “The Washington Post” disclosed that after the meeting with Obama, President Arroyo and her 60-member entourage feasted on steaks and lobsters at the Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington.

The tab totaled $15,000 or about 750,000 pesos, which Congressman Danilo Suarez of Quezon province in Southern Luzon claimed he had paid to celebrate the wedding anniversary of President Arroyo and her husband lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo who was part of the entourage.

Critics denounced these dinners, saying they were held while the nation was in mourning following the death on August 1 of democracy icon former president Corazon Aquino and while most of the 90 million Filipinos are reeling from the crippling impact of the worsening global economic slowdown.

Apparently jumping the gun on the critics, Gary Olivar, the deputy presidential spokesman, justified the planned purchase of the jet as he stressed it would be used in the President’s official local and foreign visits.

Olivar said the Presidential Airlift Wing (Paw) of the Philippine Air Force has two planes – the F-28 jet which is now being used and the F-27, a propeller-driven aircraft undergoing maintenance checks.

The F-28 and the F-27 planes are 29 and 50 years old, respectively, and are costly to maintain, Olivar said as he pointed out:

“Under the present arrangement, the Paw needs at least two fixed-wing jets for every presidential engagement. With only one available, the office of the President has to charter civilian aircraft to address the airlift requirements of the President.”

As Olivar added, this is not only very expensive but also poses high-security risk that may jeopardize the life and limb of the President.

For instance, Olivar noted that there is limited opportunity for security checking of civilian aircraft and the crew assigned for presidential flights, thus raising the possibility of security breach and sabotage.

For this reason, Olivar said her successor should thank President Arroyo for ensuring a safe, reliable air transport that befits a head of state and sparing him or her the same fate as President Arroyo who risks her life and limb by using chartered civilian aircraft in performing her official functions.

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