Navy Petty Officers are no petty men

After six days, all three victims in the unfortunate plane crash which included Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo have all been accounted for. The fourth passenger, Robredo’s aide-de-camp Police Inspector June Abrazado, survived though fractured by the plane crash at the Masbate Sea last August 18.

The six-seater Piper Seneca plane dove down the vast, deep waters of Masbate Sea while trying to make an emergency landing at the nearby airport. Injured, Abrazado went back to help lead the rescuers to the crash site in the sea where he had been found floating by a passing fisherman.

Although the plane went down about 200 meters from shore, the strong tidal currents had already moved the ill-fated aircraft farther away from the original crash site and into the deepest parts of the sea.

To his credit, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III flew to Masbate the day after the crash to personally supervise the search and rescue operations. He brought along several members of his official family, namely, Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Mar Roxas II, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, and Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.

The Commander-in-chief supervised the troopers brought by Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Jessie Dellosa and Philippine Navy flag-officer-in-command Adm. Alexander Pama and Coast Guard chief Vice Adm. Edmund Tan.

Despite massive operations, it was only on the third day after the crash that the body of Robredo was finally found and pulled from the plane wreckage. The body of pilot Jessup Bahinting was recovered on Wednesday while that of his Nepalese co-pilot Kshitiz Chand was found floating yesterday in the retrieval area.

It would have been a watery grave for Robredo along with the two pilots of the fallen plane. Thanks to modern, advanced technology, it led the brave teams of technical divers to the exact spot of the wreckage found 180 feet under the sea and 800 meters away from shore.

This again underscored the need for modernizing the equipment of the AFP as the front-line agency for such kind of search and rescue missions.

It was a good thing there was a passing US Naval ship that docked for a port call in Manila. After having secured authority from their superiors, the US Navy lent some of these sonars and other equipment that we did not have but are needed to locate the wreckage in the deepest parts of the sea.

Of course, all the equipment would have been put to naught if not for the guts and skills of men and women who joined in the search and rescue mission. Trained scuba divers from the Philippine Navy and the Coast Guard were augmented by foreign and local volunteer technical divers. Among them were three divers led by Matt Reed of Britain who came from a private resort in Malapascua, Cebu.

But after more than 48 hours of massive operations to locate the missing, searchers recovered only a torn wing of the plane and a few more debris that surfaced. Efforts of both man and machine were turning futile.

With hopes running low of finding the three alive, operations were transformed to search and retrieval on the third day. The decision came no less from President Aquino after being apprised of the latest situation from divers that the plane wreck had been found.

The Commander-in-chief was directing operations from Manila a day after he flew back to attend to his late father’s death anniversary observance. Gazmin and Roxas were manning the post in the operations center in Masbate.

Roxas did a good job in keeping the Robredo family informed every step of the way. Roxas also kept the Filipino people up-to-date on the results of the search and retrieval as the official spokesman of the operations.

Emotions ran high after the foreign divers reported finding the body of Robredo trapped inside the wreckage of the plane. Matt Reed was hailed for the discovery. True, but the actual retrieval of Robredo’s body was done by our Navy team of technical divers who went down deep to get him.

Specifically, the two scuba divers were Navy Petty Officer (PO) 3 Edgardo Vergara and his partner Gunnery 3rd Mate Roger Brizuela Jr. They were part of the Navy team deployed to Masbate from day one of the search and rescue. 

The two belong to the Naval Special Operations Group based in Sangley Point, Cavite. PO 3 Vergara and Gunnery 3rd Mate Brizuela — the equivalent rank of Sergeant in the Army — were able to complete their task of underwater retrieval procedures to get Robredo’s body out of the wreckage in ten minutes. That was well within what their breathing tanks could allow them to finish the job.

Pressed for time, the two however rendered their snappy salute out of respect to the fallen DILG Secretary. After required rest, the Naval team went back to recover the other victims. Vergara and Seaman Second Class Ragde Donalvo retrieved the body of Bahinting the next day. 

Strong underwater currents were the greatest challenge the retrieval teams had to contend with. This is not to mention the other risks like decompression dangers for divers at these depths.

Despite the gallant efforts of these Navy divers, there have been insinuations that Robredo’s body was prioritized by the retrieval teams before looking for the two other victims. Such pettiness is nothing but trash talk.

According to the media briefing by Roxas, Reed was given a photo of Robredo, presumably to enable the British diver to recognize the DILG Secretary because he does not know our official. Hence, this raised such questions.

However, a simple reason is, of course, Robredo was a Cabinet official and hence, he was naturally the priority of the mission.

But our Navy Petty Officers are no petty men despite lack of equipment. They did selfless service to the families of the fallen — whoever they were — and did their job at a great risk to their own lives. Hooooyah! That’s our Navy men’s rallying cry.