EDITORIAL - Waiting for an upgrade

With assistance from civilian volunteers, technical divers of the Philippine Navy retrieved the body of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo from the wreckage of the light plane that crashed into waters off Masbate City last Saturday. The remains of one of the two pilots of the ill-fated Piper Seneca plane, Jessup Bahinting, was also recovered by Navy divers from the cockpit yesterday afternoon, in waters 180 feet or nearly 55 meters deep.

There has been some confusion on who gets the credit for the retrieval operations. Transport and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas thanked two British civilian divers and a Filipino-American woman, who found the wreckage on the sea floor and apparently reported that Robredo was in it. The confusion probably also arose from the fact that the wreckage was spotted only after the civilian volunteers came in.

But Navy divers were the ones who extricated Robredo from the wreckage and brought the remains up to the surface. Cooperation between Navy and civilian divers resulted in the successful retrieval. Civilian assistance is welcome and Navy officials have thanked the volunteers. It will be even better, however, if Navy equipment is upgraded. The Navy can also use more personnel trained in deep-sea diving, not only for rescue and retrieval operations during disasters but also for coastal monitoring.

Even the Navy’s airborne capability can use an upgrade. A helicopter used in the retrieval operations was forced to make an emergency landing in waters off Donsol in Sorsogon the other day.

The recovery of the remains of Robredo and one of the two pilots showed that the Navy is not lacking in skills for such operations. With even a modest upgrade of equipment, the Navy’s performance can be further boosted.