CLARK FREEPORT – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the Office for Transport Security (OTS) have exonerated a top executive of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) from any culpability in the reported theft of aviation cables in a security area at the Diosdado Macapagal Airport (DMIA) here in July last year.
In a “joint investigation report” to Transportation and Communications Sec. Mar Roxas, the OTS and CAAP officials, who were tasked to probe the alleged theft, cleared CIAC president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano of any wrongdoing in the case.
Earlier, CIAC vice president for operations Reynaldo Catacutan noted that Luciano had issued handwritten permissions to the ACP manpower firm to do some “groundwork” in a restricted area in the airport where the firm’s four workers were caught allegedly pulling out underground cables.
Catacutan also earlier submitted a report to Pres. Aquino a report from the CIAC engineering and maintenance department citing two kilometers of “missing high power cable along Runway 02R/20L and Taxiway F5 with an estimated cost of P2.6 million.” He estimated the current cost of the cables at P7.2 million.
But the joint OTS-CAAP report noted that “the aviation security and safety (of passengers at the airport) is not compromised”.
“The manager of EMD (engineering and maintenance department of CIAC) clarified that the missing power cables are not back-up system for the runway, taxiway and the entire airfield, but are unused cables that could be utilized as spare lines for the east sector of the security perimeter lighting system,” the report said.
While Luciano had indeed issued access passes to four ACP Manpower firm workers, the act was “in accordance with security procedures and requirements” and was done “for the purpose of performing ground works.”
It noted that the manager of the CIAC’s aviation security department “allowed the issuance of access passes subject to a condition that the four suspects will be escorted by his security officer while inside the SRA’s (security risk areas).”
The report was not clear on why the four were later “apprehended” despite being supposedly escorted. Cable wires and a cutter were reportedly found in their possession.
The four suspects included two brothers of Josie Gomez, owner of ACP Manpower which was also named as the same firm which got involved in the reported missing funds supposedly to be donated to Aetas from the sale of scraps from unused American-era buildings that Luciano also allowed to be demolished within the aviation complex in 2010.
The suspects have remained at large as no charges have been filed against them.
The OTS-CAAP report also noted that “there is no evidence to support the allegation that the two-kilometer missing cable wires were stolen by the four suspected persons. What can be proved is that portion of the two kilometer missing cables were recovered inside the SRA (security risk area).
The joint report were submitted by the combined OTS-CAAP team composed of retired Cols. Francisco Dino and Danilo Morada, Elvin Tinsa, Bernardino Tardecilla, and Eliezer Gojas.
Community leaders in Angeles City and other towns around Clark, most of whom asked not to be named amid pending requests for financial help from Clark officials, said the theft and other similar cases have further fueled rivalries among current officials of the CIAC.
They said such rivalries were further boosted after Pres. Aquino issued recently Executive Order 64 transferring the supervision and control of the CIAC from the Office of the President to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
Roxas, as transportation and communications secretary, would then become chairman of the CIAC board, with the posts of current officials again at stake. Luciano and his colleagues within CIAC are on holdover capacities.
