Vicente Piccio Jr.

Vicente Mondéjar Piccio (1 March 1927–28 April 2015) was a Philippine Air Force major general.

Piccio was born in Iloilo City. He entered the Philippine Air Force Flying School in 1949 and graduated in 1951. Commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the reserve force, he was assigned as Flight Commander and Instructor at Fernando Air Base in Lipa. A year later, he transferred to Basa Air Base in Floridablanca where he transitioned in the P-51 Mustang. In 1954, he completed the Squadron Officers Course at the Air Force Officer School. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on December 2, 1954 and integrated into the regular force on 29 December 1955. He was promoted to Captain on 7 April 1956. He was appointed Division Commander of the 3rd Air Division in 1978 and promoted to Brigadier General on 11 July 1979. On 16 July 1980, he was designated as the Commanding Officer of the Aviation Security Command and in 1981 became the Vice-Commander of the Philippine Air Force in concurrent capacity. In the same year, he was appointed President of Military Commission Number 5. After a year, on April 5, 1982, he became Commanding General of the Philippine Air Force. On May 2 of the same year he was promoted to Major General.

Piccio was responsible for issuing in 1985 a directive banning taxpayer-subsidized Philippine Air Force personnel from traveling or gaining employment abroad “without presidential clearance or authority”.

People Power Revolution

Piccio is noted as the commander of the air force during the 1986 People Power Revolution, during which he lost effective control of the air force with the defection of a number of helicopter pilots from the 15th Strike Wing, under Col. Antonio Sotelo, that provided air cover for the rebel troops under then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, then head of the now defunct paramilitary group known as the Philippine Constabulary.

The loss of the elite air force pilots, analysts and historians say, was key to the eventual success of the four-day civilian-backed nonviolent revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

Piccio was married to Nena Hernández of Belison, Antique, and together they had seven children: Vincent Bernard, Elizabeth Mary, Philip Gregory “Dobol P”, Bernard, Robert Ephrem, Christopher and Paul Anthony. He died on 28 April 2015 in Belison.