Two widows shared private memories about losing their husbands when Robredo flew here, her first time to visit since the Aug. 18 tragedy a year ago that claimed the life of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.
“This is an emotional journey for me,” said Leni, who described the visit to Cebu as part of a “healing process”.
It was also the first time she met the family of the late Capt. Jessup Bahinting, the Cebu-based pilot of the private Piper Seneca plane that crashed in the sea off Masbate and killed Robredo, Bahinting and a student co-pilot.
Bahinting’s widow Margarita met Leni Robredo at the Mactan airport with her daughter Sarah.
They had private time together before the congresswoman showed up at SM City Cebu to open a memorabilia exhibit honoring the late Secretary Jesse Robredo.
“The meeting with the Bahinting family this morning gave me a lot of comfort in the sense that my presence, I think, was also part of the healing of the family,” Leni said.
“Ang pagkikita namin nakatulong sa pag-ease ng pain (Our meeting helped ease the pain),” she told Cebu Daily News.
Leni was shown the Aviatour hangar in Mactan where her husband had boarded his plane.
In retracing the last moments alive of her husband, the th journey will take her to Masbate province on Sunday for commemoration rites at the crash site, where a tombstone will be placed under the sea.
With her husband’s unexpected death in 2012, Leni Robredo, a lawyer and mother of three was pushed into the limelight on a wave of national fervor for integrity in government service embodied by the late Cabinet Secretary.
She was made chairperson of the Liberal Party in Camarines Sur and won the 3rd district congressional election in May.
Leni was invited to Cebu by Kaya Natin, a movement for good governance and ethical leadership started in 2008 by then Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca and Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio.
The organization has mounted a travelling photo exhibit of the life and achievements of Robredo as a mayor, cabinet secretary and family man.
After receiving the invitation for the exhibit two weeks ago, Leni called Margarita Bahinting and asked to meet her in private before the event in SM.
Margie Bahinting and daughter Sarah, together with Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, met Leni at the Mactan airport.
“This is an emotional journey for me. It was the first time to meet the Bahinting family. I had always wanted to comfort the family. We went through the same grief and the same loneliness of losing a very important member of the family,” Robredo said.
“It must be very difficult for them because in our case my husband was honored by so many people but although there were people attesting to how good a person, how good a pilot Captain Bahinting was, may konting blame sa kanila (some blame was placed on them). So I wanted to assure them, the family, that at least on my part walang ganun (there’s none of that),” Robredo added.
Jesse Robredo flew to Cebu on August 18 last year to attend the ground-breaking of the Philippine Safety College in Consolacion town. He also addressed a national summit of members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Community Investigative Support at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City.
In a hurry to go home to Naga City, he changed his schedule. DILG staff called Capt. Bahinting to book a flight to Naga on a six-seater Piper Seneca plane that afternoon. Bahinting decided to fly the plane himself.
Yesterday, Bahinting’s widow and daughter took Leni to the Aviatour Air hangar in Mactan, the last place he was seen alive.
“The meeting went well. She (Leni) just wanted to know what kind of plane Secretary Robredo took,” Sarah told CDN.
The congresswoman had to shake off some of the trauma she associated with planes.
“They showed me the very same type of plane that my husband boarded and siguro I was more prepared to deal with it now because before hindi ko kayang tumingin sa mga eroplano. (I didn’t have the courage to look at planes),” she said.
“I was glad I did it this time because nung nakita ko ang eroplano ang liit liit pala. Sabi ko kung ako yun hindi ako sumakay (when I saw how small the plane was, I said that if it were me there, I wouldn’t have taken that flight.)”
Earlier during the plane trip to Cebu, she had to distract herself with her mobile phone.
“Naglalaro ako ng games para mawala yung kaba ko,” said the congreswoman.
When Kaya Natin decided to bring the exhibit to Cebu, Leni said she wanted to show the family’s gratitude for their effort to introduce her husband to ordinary people and inspiring them.
“I promised them I would personally come, if only to make this a part of my healing,” Leni said in her opening remarks at the exhibit.
The exhibit at the third floor of SM City Cebu runs until Sunday Aug. 18.
On Sunday, a tombstone with the names of Robredo, pilot Bahinting and Nepalese co-pilot Kshitz Chand, will be lowered under the sea off the coast of Masbate at the actual crash site.
A photo of the tombstone prepared by the Masbate provincial government was shown to the Bahinting family by Leni.
Sarah Bahinting said her mother Margie is not yet emotionally ready to attend.
“Siguro not this time. When mommy is ready, when everyone is ready, we will visit the site,” Sarah told Cebu Daily News.
Leni flew back to Manila at 3 p.m. yesterday en route to Naga. From there, she and her children will fly to Masbate to attend the commemoration rites.