13-year-old who figured in C-130 crash wants to be a soldier

Wrapped in bandages as he lays in a hospital bed, the 13-year-old boy who figured in the C-130 crash in Sulu expressed his desire to serve in the Philippine military someday.

“Salamat, ‘yan ang una niyang binanggit. Tapos medyo hirap pa rin siya magsalita. Pero ang sabi niya, gusto ko maging sundalo,” Colonel Dennis Estrella said in  Marisol Abdurahman’s report on “24 Oras.”

(Thank you, that’s the first thing he said. He still has trouble speaking. Then he said he wanted to be a soldier.)

Kandari Ahadi had just left his home when the C-130 crashed near their place in Patikul, which threw him to the ground several meters away.

“Sabi niya paglabas niya ng bahay doon, ‘yun ‘yung time na nag-ano ‘yung C-130, nag impact, so lumipad siya. Napatapon siya ng medyo malayo then nakita niya ‘yung mga sundalo,”

(He said that when he left his house, that was when the C-130 crashed. So he was thrown a distance away. Then he saw the soldiers.)

At present, Ahadi is recovering from burns all over his face and body in a hospital in Zamboanga City. He has been moved to a regular room in the hospital.

Officials of the Philippine Air Force visited him and lent aid.

Meanwhile, officials also visited the pregnant woman who was wounded in the incident as well as other personnel who are undergoing treatment.—Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News