Fast falling apart

BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
8/6-7/2011



The house of cards is fast falling apart. The latest card to be detached from the house that was built on a fictionalized mandate was the resignation of Juan Miguel Zubiri as member of the Senate. The day before that was the hearing of another anomalous transaction entered by a regime borne out of political vandalism and of political swindling. This time, involving the sale to the Philippine National Police three of the five Robinson R44 Raven I helicopters. The expose made by Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson was confirmed that indeed two of the three choppers were second-hand, but refurbished and sold as new, and far above the original price which it was acquired.

Maybe the issue of overpricing is the standard modus operandi of people in government wanting to take advantage of their position. But in this questionable dealing involving Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, it seems that a more sophisticated variation on how to get one over the government they are supposed to serve has taken place. As one would put it, the scheme was splendidly brilliant. Ordinarily, sly operators bent on defrauding the government could not conceive of mapping out such intricate scheme to consummate an obviously questionable transaction.

This, one could surmise that Mike Arroyo, as seller, was aware that the PNP was badly in need of helicopters. He probably thought it wise to buy them from Lion Air, Inc., and later sell them as brand new to a waiting buyer that had not much option but wait for the go-signal and approval from the top echelons who were all appointees of Mrs. Arroyo. It was most clever, for while the Arroyos made use of those choppers for the duration of the 2004 election campaign, they thought of equally avoiding liability from graft and corruption for using them as owners just for Mrs. Arroyo to win that infamous election. After all, they used their own money to buy those choppers.

The problem however is that the modus operandi could not escape the eye of an analytical mind. As one observer noted, since the Arroyos probably knew that the PNP was in need of helicopters to modernize their operations, they were probably made to wait while in the meantime the helicopters were being used to ensure Arroyo’s victory in that rigged presidential election. That is the most plausible explanation, much that none of the top brass in the PNP had the nerve to say “no” to the proposition. For that matter, not one of them even admitted that the helicopters acquired by their organization were second-hand.

Thus, after accomplishing their mission to defraud the people of their votes with the use of those choppers, three out of the five eventually had to be sold to what many believe as a “pre-determined” buyer. That phase then focused on the usual scheme of overpricing the items. This is why the transaction was dubbed by some as doubly anomalous because helicopters, like cars, depreciate fast in price after being sold and used. But in that transaction, instead of the two second-hand helicopters reducing their price tag, they were sold to the PNP for twice the original price of a brand-new chopper. Thus, instead of paying less than P18 million, they were sold to the tune of P30 million apiece.

In that, one could see that the original buyer was not only able to use them extensively for free during their campaign sorties, but was able to dispose of them easily at a price double the original cost for their acquisition. The seller was able to do that because he wields much clout and influence in the government that was hijacked in 2001, and the PNP, as purchaser, could not say anything except to say “yes.”

The sale to the PNP of those choppers could have been most ideal because it likely enjoyed the privilege of tax exemption. Such is logical—why else would Lion Air owner Archibald Po course those helicopters purchased by Mike to another corporation identified as Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp., owned by Hilario de Vera in order to sell them to the PNP? If seller Mike Arroyo and buyer PNP and the two private corporations, acting as agents, truly believe there was nothing wrong in that transaction, the simplest explanation why they resorted to that system of intricate layering was to prevent the identification of the owner-seller. It was imperative for them to put up a semblance of neatness to avoid being accused of taking advantage of Mr. Arroyo’s power and influence.

More than that, the owner-seller, it seems, wanted to make good the saying that if one wants to defraud the government, he might as well defraud it to the fullest. The best way to do that is to overprice the cost, and get away with it by not paying taxes. This is the only plausible reason why Lion Air, Inc., as importer- seller of those choppers to Mike Arroyo, could not sell them, as agent for Mike, to the PNP.

It instead coursed the transaction to Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp. to probably misrepresent itself as the importer-seller or as agent of Lion Air, Inc. Nonetheless, many are inclined to believe that Mike Arroyo himself was the importer, but used Lion Air, Inc. to facilitate his scheme. People will least suspect because Lion Air had long been engaged in the business of selling helicopters.

Thus, if the tax-exempt transaction inured to the seller for selling them to a tax-exempt organization like the PNP, then that windfall profit would eventually inure to the real importer himself. This probably explains why Po and de Vera spilled the beans before Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing headed by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, for they were possibly used as dummies. Instinctively, no respectable businessman would allow himself to be reduced as collecting agent, while in the meantime he is being deprived of his business by one who only has with him his capital of power and influence.

Indeed, the bungled transaction made a truism of the saying that “there is no such thing as perfect crime.”

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)