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Pilot in Robredo plane crash considered helping others his ‘life mission’
During his ill-fated flight en route to Naga City on Saturday afternoon, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo was in the company of a local hero.
Three days before the plane he was piloting crashed off Masbate City, Captain Jessup Bahinting was able to save the life of Ronaldo Aventurado, a zookeeper from Cebu City who was bitten by a Philippine cobra.
Sylvan Jakosalem, one of Bahinting’s close friends, said the pilot sent one of his planes to Camiguin Island to fetch vials of anti-venom for the zookeeper.
“He is considered a hero. As a matter of fact we were planning to award him on Charter Day,” Jakosalem said in an interview aired over GMA News TV's State of the Nation news program Monday night.
“Pupuntahan niya sana ako para tingnan ako pero hindi niya ako nakita. Siya pa ang na-missing at ako pa ang nabuhay,” Aventurado said in a separate interview.
Bahinting and his co-pilot Kshitiz Chand remain missing after the four-seater Piper Seneca they were riding crashed in the waters off the shoreline of Masbate City at about 5 p.m. Saturday, supposedly due to engine trouble.
Early Tuesday morning, Transportation Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II announced that Robredo’s body had been recovered at a depth of 180 feet off the coast of Masbate City. Later in the day, Roxas said that another body, which has yet to be identified, was found inside the plane’s wreckage.
‘Model husband’
Aventurado, however, was not the first person saved by Captain Bahinting. The pilot's wife, Margarita Bahinting, said her husband considered saving lives as his “life mission.”
“When there was an earthquake in Negros, nagpadala kami ng relief doon. Noong bagyong Sendong, ilang beses kami nagpadala ng tulong doon. The people of Cagayan de Oro can attest to that. Kahit noong landslide sa Guinsaugon (in southern Leyte), nandoon siya,” Mrs. Bahinting said in an interview over ANC on Tuesday morning.
She also shared that his husband was an active pastor and Visayas area superintendent of the Grace Communion International, a Christian denomination.
Mrs. Bahinting also described the pilot as a “model husband.” The couple was supposed to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this December.
“Mapagmahal siya… He has already done his task here on Earth. I already accept what happened, but it is really painful,” she said.
Antonio Jereidini, training director of the aircraft rental company Aviatour Air which Bahinting managed, for his part, said that the pilot never hesitated to go on medical evacuation flights if necessary.
“He has always been very actively involved in flying. Almost all of his flights were mercy flights and medical evacuation flights,” Jereidini said in another television interview. — with Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News
Tags: jesserobredo, jessupbahinting
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