6 Pinoys in Kabul crash were ex-PAF

MANILA, Philippines - Six Filipinos who perished in the C-130 plane crash in Afghanistan last Oct. 13 were former members of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), an official said yesterday.

PAF spokesman Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol said among those who died were retired PAF vice commander Maj. Gen. Rene Badilla, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1975 and Maj. Henry Bulos, a graduate of PAF flying school Class of 1989.

The four other fatalities were also attached and assigned to the PAF 220th Airlift Wing in Mactan Air Force Base, Cebu. They were C-130 crewmembers Nilo Medina and Ibelo Valbuena, and a certain Castillo, a mechanic, and a certain Padro.

“I am still completing details about our former C-130 crewmembers,” Okol said.

He said Bulos and Badilla and their four crewmen were not working in Afghanistan but were based in Africa. “They were only in transit and were in the area to deliver supplies and equipment,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has declared that the six were undocumented, which means they entered Afghanistan through illegal means.

The PAF, under Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena, is coordinating with the victims’ families for whatever assistance and services they need at this time.

Bulos and Badilla were piloting a C-130 cargo plane with four Filipinos, an Indian and a Kenyan as crewmen en route to Kabul Airport when their plane plunged into a mountain crevice near the Afghan capital last Oct. 13.