A photo taken in October last year shows Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, right, in a huddle with Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, middle, and Mayor Celso Lobregat, of Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 21, 2012) – Divers have recovered Tuesday the remains of a Philippine minister and his two pilots who died in a plane crash in the central Philippines, officials said.
Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas announced the recovery of the bodies of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and Captain Jessup Bahinting and his co-pilot Nepalese Kshitiz Chand off Masbate Island where their chartered Piper Seneca aircraft went down over the weekend.
Roxas said the wreckage of the twin-engine plane was located about 180 feet below the sea, just 800 meters from the island. A rubber boat picked up the body of Robredo and brought ashore at around 8.15 a.m. The bodies of the pilots are yet to be retrieved.
Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas announced the recovery of the bodies of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and Captain Jessup Bahinting and his co-pilot Nepalese Kshitiz Chand off Masbate Island where their chartered Piper Seneca aircraft went down over the weekend.
Roxas said the wreckage of the twin-engine plane was located about 180 feet below the sea, just 800 meters from the island. A rubber boat picked up the body of Robredo and brought ashore at around 8.15 a.m. The bodies of the pilots are yet to be retrieved.
“Secretary Robredo is a good friend and good leader. It is a great loss and we, my family and the people of Sulu, condole with the family of Secretary Robredo. We will surely miss him as he was a frequent visitor to Sulu who always bring peace and development projects to out people,” Sulu Goverbor Sakur Tan told the Mindanao Examiner.
The 54-year old Robredo was heading to Naga City from Cebu when the plane crashed.
The 54-year old Robredo was heading to Naga City from Cebu when the plane crashed.
Robredo’s police aide Chief Inspector June Paolo Abrazado survived the crash and said the pilots radioed the control tower to say that the plane was experiencing engine trouble barely 30 minutes after it took off from Cebu airport. (Mindanao Examiner)
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