The untouchable Jesus Verzosa

Is it believable that then Philippine National Police Chief, Jesus Versoza, signed the documents for the purchase of three new helicopters in the amount of P104.9 million without knowing that two of those aircraft were second-hand and previously owned by Mike Arroyo, husband of Gloria Arroyo?

Is it also believable that Mike Arroyo would decide to involve PNP in this anomalous deal without making sure that the PNP chief is into his scheme?

The seemingly velvet glove treatment of Verzosa in this anomalous deal that cost the reportedly cash-trapped PNP, and in a larger picture, the Filipino people millions of pesos, is intriguing and disturbing.

PNP Chief Raul Bacalzo said that although Verzosa approved and signed the check that according to the sellers, was encashed and delivered to Arroyo, he was not in the list of those the PNP would be investigating. If he is excluded from the investigation, how can he be made accountable? If he cannot be made accountable, where is justice if the subordinates are charged?

Even in the Senate, not much attention is given to Verzosa who simply dismissed his signature in the irregular transaction as ministerial.

There is something wrong with that kind of thinking by a head of an important agency as the PNP.

As PNP head, Verzosa enjoyed a hefty pay , powers and privileges. The position also comes with duties and responsibilities.

One of the functions of the PNP is to “Enforce all laws and ordinance relative to the protection of lives and properties.”

Among the laws to be observed is the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Their payment of a brand new price for a used helicopter was in violation of that law.

What they did is no different from buying clothes in ukay-ukay for the amount that you would pay if you bought the items in a department store which is, to put it kindly, dumb.

From the testimony of Hilario de Vera, president of Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp, the company used to sell the helicopters to PNP, the police leadership knew it was used. He related at the Senate investigation that when he was following up the remaining balance of the payment, PNP Director Romeo Hilomen, a member of the PNP negotiating committee allegedly told him, “to stop calling Interior Secretary (Ronaldo) Puno because we are being pressured. I know for a fact that those helicopters are not new. I don’t like that.”

Supt. Claudio Gaspar, a licensed pilot of the PNP, who was part of the inspection team that received the aircraft from Maptra, knew that they were used and pre-owned by the Arroyos because he had ferried Mike Arroyo and his son, Mikey, in those two helicopters a number of times.

If his subordinates knew that they were buying ukay-ukay quality helicopters for the price of new and Verzosa professed ignorance about it, what does that make of him?

At the Senate investigation, Verzosa projected a dismissive air when asked about his accountability in the anomalous deal.

There must be a basis for the smugness.

It must be recalled that Verzosa was President Aquino’s first choice to be secretary of Interior and Local Government. That’s why in the beginning, Jesse Robredo was just “acting secretary” because the position was reserved until the early retirement of Verzosa which was in December 2010.

Verzosa, who was close to Mike Arroyo, had impressed Aquino when in the twilight of the Arroyo administration, amid rumors of failure of the 2010 elections and no proclamation of the new president, Verzosa declared that he would not be following illegal orders.

Verzosa won Aquino’s trust and confidence with that motherhood pronouncement. It helped a lot that he was close to the President’s shooting buddy, DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno.

That bond with the President cleared him of any accountability in the police bungling of the Aug. 23, 2010 Rizal Park hostage crisis. He was also named by Bishop Oscar Cruz as among the protectors of jueteng. The government just turned a blind eye about that information.

The controversies made it untenable for Aquino to appoint Verzosa as DILG chief but the President declared his unshaken trust on him during the turnover of command to Bacalzo in September 2010.

Aquino still praised Verzosa as “the embodiment of courage, discipline and professionalism.”

There’s a select group of people who are not covered by the President’s anti wang-wang and “matuwid na daan” crusade. Verzosa is one of them.