No helipads, no flights

Seven Philippine National Police generals were marooned in an impounding site in Barangay San Antonio in San Pedro, Laguna. What were they doing there in the first place?

Indeed, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP intelligence director Maj. Gen. Mariel Magaway, PNP comptroller

Maj. Gen. Jose Maria Victor Ramos, PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, and three other police generals were in the wrong place where there was no helipad. That is more generals in one place than generals that would be in Davao City when summoned by the President. An impounding area, by its purpose, does not have a helipad for VIP brass.

The cause of the tragedy, the helicopter’s rotor cutting cable electric wires as reported by eyewitnesses and recorded on video, should foreclose further investigation of the incident.

Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar would do well to cut short the investigation of the cause of the crash and to conclude that, henceforth, no helicopter flights would be allowed to places without helipads. That would save another P435 million, the value of the helicopter.

JOSE J. FERRER JR.
jjferrerjr1@yahoo.com