Thursday, August 28, 2008 Editorials: An Air Force problem
AN explosion preceded the crash of a military C-130 plane near Davao City Monday night according to witnesses, sparking speculations of sabotage by unidentified forces.
Given the current government offensive against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte, that theory, wild as it looks for now, seems compelling.
There is not much to go, however, about this theory considering the dearth of information on the flight of the plane and the situation during the crash.
But it serves to deflect attention away from the sorry state of the Philippine Air Force, which is actually the most important point exposed by the tragedy.
Cause of crash
The sabotage theory, for example, was insisted upon by some Air Force officials who claimed that the plane was well maintained, meaning, mechanical trouble may not have been a factor.
The problem with this contention, however, is that the plane has not yet been found, the bigger probability being that it may have fell into the sea when it crashed.
If the plane is not found, then it becomes doubly difficult to ascertain the cause of the crash, whether it was a result of sabotage or of mechanical trouble.
Doubly tragic
Even then, one can easily note that the plane itself, while well-maintained as some Air Force officials insisted, is old and was heavily used prior to the crash.
This is not surprising considering the war in Mindanao and the limited number of useful C-130s in the Air Force.
Reports say that prior to the crash there were only five C-130s in the Air Force fleet and only a few were flying, which would make the incident even more tragic for the military.
This brings to mind another sorry incident wherein a wounded soldier died because the arrival of the helicopter summoned to bring him to the hospital was delayed by bad weather.
It was later found out that the purchase of helicopters that can fly even in bad weather has been stalled by incompetence any bureaucratic red tape.
Public pressure
Of course, to say that government needs to improve the air asset of the military is to be repetitive and monotonous.
But in the light of the recent tragedy, it would be good to intensify the pressure on government to give priority to solving the biggest problem in the Air Force.
