State-run aerospace firm to be abolished for not making a single plane for 45 years

The government will abolish a state-run firm that has not fulfilled its mandate of designing and producing airplanes in its almost 45 years of existence.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who is an ex-officio member of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG), told reporters recently that the GCG decided to abolish the Philippine Aerospace Development Corp. (PADC) during its Dec. 15 meeting.

“They are supposed to design a plane,” Dominguez said. “It’s been 45 years already and they have not designed a plane yet. That’s their charter.”

The Pasay City-based PADC was created in 1973. Aoccrding to the website of the Civil Aeronautics Board, it is mandated to undertake “business and development activities for the establishment of a reliable aviation and aerospace industry within the Philippines,” as well as to engage in the “design, manufacture, and sale of all forms of aircraft” and to develop “local capabilities in the maintenance, repair, and modification of aviation equipment.”

Dominguez added that the North Luzon Railways Corp. (NLRC) would also be abolished, as there was “no use” for it anymore.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, also an ex-officio member of the GCG, earlier said that the commission had recommended the deactivation the state-run corporation that was formed to oversee the controversial NorthRail project.

Deactivating the NLRC meant that it would no longer be provided a budget and hence could not operate anymore, Diokno said.

A flagship project of the Arroyo administration, the 80-kilometer railroad was supposed to link Caloocan City with an international airport at Clark in Pampanga.

When he took over in 2010, then President Benigno Aquino III ordered a review of the contract between NorthRail and the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. Group to build the railway.

The project has been hounded by allegations of overpricing, its cost rising from an initial $503 million to about $2 billion, according to reports. /atm