Cebu-based divers joined the search and rescue operations for Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and two pilots who remain missing since Saturday’s crash of their Seneca Piper plane in the waters off Masbate City.
Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas said the technical divers who are mostly Americans arrived in nearby Ticao Island at 1 p.m yesterday and could dive to a depty at most 250 meters.
Roxas said President Benigno Aquino III wanted it stressed that Robredo and the two pilots were considered survivors and that search and rescue operations will continue.
Roxas said the President’s mood has been “very somber,” and is “emotionally engaged” in the search and rescue operation because as far as the President is concerned, Robredo is “more than a friend; he is a comrade.”
The father of the missing young Nepalese co-pilot arrived in Cebu yesterday and said he saluted President Aquino for taking a direct hand in the search.
With the marching orders to not to give up the search and rescue operation until contrary orders from the President, all leaders in all coastal villages in Masbate mainland and Ticao were likewise directed to search all their coastlines for possible survivors, Roxas he said.
The aerial search has also been extended to the coast of Sorsogon, Albay, Burias and Ticao Island.
The transportation secretary said the divers would be searching the primary dive site pinpointed on Monday along the Masbate Pass, the body of water that separates Masbate Island from Ticao Island.
The technical divers are based in Malaspascua Island in Cebu.
The divers’ search is primarily concentrated at a distance of 1 to 2 kilometers from the coast of Masbate City and depth of from 45 to 80 meters, he said.
They join the Coast Guard and the Air Force in searching for the whereabouts of Robredo, Capt. Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese pilot Kshitiz Chand.
A helicopter loaded with diving equipment were airlifted from Mactan Benito Ebuen Airbase to Masbate City early yesterday morning, Air Force spokesperson Reynaldo Gabiñete said in a text message to Cebu Daily News.
Somber mood
The Air Force also received helium tanks from some civilians and sent two MG 520 helicopters and one Huey helicopter for the search operations.
President Benigno Aquino III went yesterday to Naga City to update Robredo’s family.
A somber mood prevailed at the command post in Masbate.
The current dive site was determined because it was where the flight manifest was found and where the sonar has detected metallic objects.
The danger, according to Roxas, is that about 200 meters from that location is a undersea “ravine” that is about 300 meters in depth that is impossible to be reached by divers.
Roxas said the search area has been extended 30 nautical miles from the coast of Masbate or almost the same length as the western coastline of Ticao Island, which is parallel to the coastline of Masbate mainland.
Roxas said the current was very strong in the area where there were physical evidence of a wreckage.
“Probably the wreckage on the sea floor is being tossed by the current,” he said.
He said they have also considered a search for any signal that might be transmitted by the plane’s electronic locator transmitter (ILT). Roxas said every aircraft should have an ILT, which would emit signal that could be received by international air agency.
So far, however, no signal has been received even by those in Japan and Hong Kong, he said.
Prayers
At the Robredo home in Naga City, Robredo’s eldest daughter went out of their house in Bulusan Street, Dayangdang in this city to thank the media and her father’s supporters praying for the safety of her father.
Jessica Mae “Aika” Robredo, 24, accompanied by her cousin Gaile Robredo, went out of their house to briefly face the media and supporters and thanked them for their presence.
“It is of big help to us,” she said, adding that after three days of search for their father, they were “realistic but hopeful” that he survived the crash.
She said that until there is no news yet about the search and rescue, they are still asking for prayers.
“At this point, we are still hopeful,” she said.
Robredo had wanted to be in Naga City on the day of the crash because he had planned to give a “blowout” to his youngest daughter Jillian, 13, for winning the bronze medal in an international Math Olympic held recently in Singapore. He has another daughter, Patricia, 18.
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, who has been staying at the Robredo home since Sunday, said she has been tasked by the President to lend support to the family undergoing difficult process.
The social welfare secretary arrived here last Sunday morning and was expected to stay with the family until Tuesday.
Soliman, a personal friend of the Robredo and his wife Maria Leonor or Leni, added she was also instructed by Mr. Aquino to serve as a communication link to the President and search and rescue team. Inquirer with a report from Correspondent Jessa Agua