Remembering 2 events on Aug 21

We learned about the missing plane of Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo early Saturday evening from radio reports. Then came a deluge of text messages which really sounded surreal. Then came the official word, which the national TV agencies reported that indeed, the Piper Seneca II of Avia Tours piloted by my good friend Capt. Jessup Bahinting had gone missing.

By Sunday, Sec. Robredo and Capt. Bahinting and his co-pilot were still missing. The plane apparently had an engine trouble and was making an emergency landing in Masbate City… but it crashed about a kilometer before the runway. Reports have it that the plane must have gone down in deep water which made it more difficult to find.

I have known Capt. Bahinting for quite sometime. Two years ago, I invited him to be part of the 10th anniversary celebration of my TV talk show, “Straight from the Sky” together with Air Safari’s Capt. Joy Roa and we flew in formation taking videos of Cebu from the sky. My son, JV is also taking flying lessons with Avia Tours, which recently had a mercy mission flying the wounded bodyguards of the Surigao Governor who were ambushed last week. A few days ago, they flew an anti-venom for the zoo caretaker who was bitten by a cobra in the Cebu City Zoo.

I have seen the Piper Seneca II of Avia Tours and its one of their best aircraft. In fact, my son told me that last Friday they were doing maintenance work in that plane so it should have been flying well. Capt. Jessup once had an emergency landing with then former Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña in a beach in Sogod, Cebu some 60 kilometers north of Cebu City. But that was a single engine plane, which had fuel problems.

At this point, it would take some deep sea diving to get into that plane. Call Capt. Jun Abrazado lucky he was able to get out of the sinking plane. He is the only person who can tell us what really went terribly wrong with the Piper Seneca that even an experienced pilot like Capt. Jessup Bahinting couldn’t handle anymore. We have really lost good men on that plane.

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Today is the 29th anniversary of the assassination of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. whom I have always considered as the “Hero” of my generation. It was on this day that we who were opposed to the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship waited for the arrival of Ninoy as it was already written in the “Mosquito press.” They were the odd magazine-cum-newspapers like Mr. & Ms and later the Inquirer that actually told the truth as the mainstream media in those days could no longer be trusted to tell the truth.

The evening before that, we had a fellowship at the Rotary Club of Cebu (in 1983, I was not yet a journalist) and every one was asked the question whether Pres. Marcos would send Ninoy back to prison. When it came to my turn I blurted out… “They would never allow Ninoy to return home. He would be dead before he touches Philippine soil.”

When the news that Ninoy was assassinated came out on TV I got a lot of calls (this was the age before the cellphone was discovered) from my Rotarian friends, how was it that I predicted Ninoy’s death? I merely told my friends it was just luck. I just happened to believe that there were strong and powerful people allied to the Marcoses who found Ninoy a nuisance and someone had to get rid of him and that’s exactly what they did to Ninoy.

In killing, they transformed a politician into a martyr, which I’m sure they must have regretted. Yet 29 years after his assassination, no one got imprisoned who masterminded that dastardly deed. Sure, they threw to jail those poor AVSECOM guards, who were merely following orders, even unto this day. But the real mastermind has been a well-guarded secret even up to now… although most Filipinos have a general idea who that person is.

At this point, can we still expect Justice for Ninoy under the leadership of his only son, Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III? Knowing how vindictive Pres. PNoy is, it just amazes me that while he has shown former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo no mercy (but even the Marcoses showed their mercy to Ninoy by allowing him to leave for the US) he is not using the vast powers of the Presidency to go after those who killed his own father?

Meanwhile for those of you who were not yet born in 1971, today is also the 41st anniversary of the infamous Plaza Miranda bombing of the Liberal Party’s (LP) Miting de Avance where Senators Gerry Roxas, Serging Osmeña, Jr, Rep. Ramon Bagatsing, Jovito Salonga were badly injured by the two hand grenades that blew up in front of the Senatoriables. Later Sen. Jovito Salonga wrote in his memoirs that this dastardly deed was perpetrated by Jose Maria (JOMA) Sison of the CPP. So Pres. Marcos was right that the Communists stood to gain by bombing the LP and pin the blame on Marcos.

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