48th Anniversary of the 250th Presidential Airlift Wing

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte graced the 48th anniversary of the 250th Presidential Airlift Wing (PAW) at the Villamor Air Base (VAB) in Pasay City, where he led the presentation of awards to the outstanding men, women, and units under PAW.

The mission of the 250th PAW is to “provide safe, secure and effective air transportation” for the President and the immediate members of his or her family, and for visiting heads of state, state guests and other VIPs.

Together with National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Ricardo Visaya, plaques of appreciation were likewise given to PAW’s partners from the private and government sectors such as the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Manila Control Tower, Airport Police Department, Philippine Airlines and Lufthansa Technik Philippines.

In his speech, President Duterte thanked the PAW command for the mobility provided to him in his 40 years of service in the government. As a gesture of support, he assured them a budget allocation amounting to about half a billion pesos for the repair and refurbishment of PAW’s facilities, and for the improvement of their services.

The President briefly discussed his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the problem of illegal drugs, and the just concluded 28th and 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits held in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic earlier this month.

President Duterte said, “Sabi ko lang, we will respect the judgment of your court. Period.”

He then reiterated that he would put at stake his honor, even his life and the Presidency, just to fulfill what he promised to the Filipino people.

“I promise the people that I will give you a clean government and it will be clean as it could ever be. I promise you that I’ll get rid of the drug problem because if I don’t, it will compromise the next generation of Filipinos given the numbers who are now addicted,” President Duterte said as he ended his speech. ●