THE Philippine Air Force (PAF) yesterday confirmed that it used the G280 Gulfstream command-and-control aircraft to transport President Marcos Jr. to Singapore over the weekend where he and his family watched the Formula One Grand Prix.
Air Force spokeswoman Col. Ma Consuelo Castillo said the PAF, through the 250th Airlift Wing, “is mandated to provide safe and secure air transport to the President for all his movements as directed by higher office.
“It is the raison d’etre or reason for being of the 250th PAW, thus, all its air assets are dedicated for the use of the President and the First Family,” said Castillo.
House deputy minority leader and ACT Teachers party list Rep. France Castro earlier asked Malacañang and the AFP to categorically state if the Gulfstream aircraft was used to fly the President to Singapore.
Castro said that if the President used government resources for “personal, extravagant, and frivolous junket” amid the economic hardship, then “it is like a punch in the gut of hungry Filipinos.” She added that the President’s trip was “insensitive and callous in light of the suffering of Filipinos.”
“The G280 aircraft, being a command-and-control aircraft, allows the President to perform his very critical function as Commander in Chief (of the) AFP while airborne, wherever he is around the globe, whether on state functions or otherwise,” said Castillo.
The Department of National Defense acquired the G280 aircraft from the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp (GAC), in 2020 for P2 billion under the AFP modernization program.
The DND said the aircraft was acquired principally as a command-and-control aircraft, but this can be also used to transport government leaders and commanders, including the President, the defense secretary and AFP chief.
The G280 Gulfstream aircraft has a maximum range of 3,600 nautical miles or 6,667 kilometers and can fly eight hours non-stop.
‘INSENSITIVE’
At the House, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said “the more Malacañang justifies the furtive trip to Singapore of President Marco, Jr. to watch the F1 Grand Prix, the more the insensitive escapade is exacerbated.
“No amount of justification that the President was able to talk to some foreign officials at the sideline of the racetrack will diminish the flawed principal purpose of the trip to watch Formula 1 racers even as Filipinos race for survival under the onslaught of escalating inflation,” said the opposition leader, who is the president of the Liberal Party.
Lagman also reminded Malacañang that the public is entitled to know whether public or private money was used for the first family’s holiday “because in either case, funds were not spent frugally and wisely.”
“Little did we know that when the President in his first SONA (State of the Nation Address) exhorted ‘full speed ahead’ he was referring to the Singapore Grand Prix,” he said. — With Wendell Vigilia
