The sound level of a helicopter is around 87 decibels, while the sound of a person breathing is pegged at 10 decibels. Yet when Kris Aquino was twice photographed using the presidential chopper to campaign for Mar Roxas' presidential bid, the same people, who are raising Cain about Vice President Sara Z. Duterte using a government helicopter, were deathly silent. What underscores the hypocrisy even more is that Kris' apologists managed with a straight face to say that Kris was one of the country's top taxpayers, and so it was okay. Now, a more brazen demonstration of entitlement one will be hard-pressed to find.

I wonder why there is such a fetish on the part of those in the opposition to bash those in government using choppers. Perhaps they forget that the late husband of their patron saint Leni Robredo was in a government plane when he perished. No one seemed to have raised a howl then. Au contraire, he was even made a de facto saint, one rabid dilawan even going so far as saying the waters of Masbate have been "sanctified" by his immersion therein. Sometimes, one can only slowly shake one's head at the kind of mentality these yellows possess.

At any rate, only those without any experience in high-level executive management, as well as those who will exploit any excuse to find fault in what the present administration is doing, will see any real problem with the use of aircraft in order to make top decisionmakers save time and work more efficiently.

I have had my share of proximity to high-ranking officials in my nine years as a civil servant. My first boss, then Vice President Salvador Laurel, used a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander in his official visits to far-flung areas. I myself was sent by my ninong, Mayor Fred Lim when he was Interior Secretary, on important missions using a Philippine National Police Eurocopter when I was an assistant secretary.
Once was when I had to go to Tiaong, Quezon on a confidential assignment during the anniversary of the New People's Army, when there was a great danger of those godless insurgents ambushing someone in a government car to prove their futile point. No wonder Ninong Fred didn't want to go himself! Being waylaid by armed communists is not on anyone's list of things to do before they die.

Private planes and helicopters are routinely used by the captains of industry and their top executives to cut trawl time considerably. Indeed, why travel to, say, Baguio and consume five to six hours one way — and probably arrive bedraggled — when you can do it in an hour and 15 minutes fresh as a daisy? Truly, there are times when only air travel will do. And these private executives only run corporations that benefit themselves and their stockholders, and (incidentally) the economy and a few hundred employees. Why can't those who run a country of more than 110 million be entitled to equal privileges, at the very least?

Saying that our top government officials should be able to use the most expeditious modes of transportation available for work is not being an elitist, or an apologist, but being a realist. Talking candidly, it is justifiable to say that what may be wretched excess for some to use a helicopter — say a rich playboy on his way to a date, a socialite on her way to Kahirup, or, yes, a presidential sister who is a private citizen on the campaign trail — would be a necessity to others.

It would even be egregious for some critics to reduce the cost of air travel by a high-ranking official to pesos and centavos. The benefits to the public by way of increased efficiency on the part of the public official involved, in terms of much better discharge of the duties entrusted to them by more than 30 million voters, would be well-nigh incalculable. Unfortunately, for the faultfinders, they are unable — or unwilling to — wrap their heads around that concept. They have mindsets and worldviews that have failed to keep pace with the supersonic age; they are stuck in the era of hot air balloons. That is why they have nothing to offer but hot air.