Navy diver leaves rites for father to search for Jesse

MANILA, Philippines - At around 6 p.m. last Saturday, Philippine Navy 3rd Mate Rogelio Brizuela received a text message saying, “Report to HQ ASAP.” 

There was a gathering at Brizuela’s house in Sucat, Parañaque City to mark the 40th day of the death of his father.

The order came from the Naval Special Operations Group headquarters based in Sangley Point, Cavite.

Brizuela learned of their mission only upon arriving in Sangley Point.

Before dawn Sunday, the Navy group was brought to Masbate to join the search and rescue operations for Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and pilots Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese Kshitiz Chand.

“The whole team went to work as soon as we got there,” Brizuela said.

“After the location of the ill-fated aircraft was pinpointed by our sonar and visuals of a body inside the plane were made by foreign volunteer dive experts, we took over to recover the body,” he said.

The Navy’s technical diving experts who led the recovery of victims of the ill-fated twin-engine Piper Seneca saluted Robredo before they lifted him up from the plane wreckage.

Brizuela said he felt “very, very sad” over what happened to Robredo.

He said that when he and Petty Officer 2 Edgardo Vergara reached the wreckage of the plane at 180 feet, they found Robredo with his head near the plane’s door. He said the secretary was not strapped to his seat.

“The position of Secretary Robredo, because the plane was upside down, was also inverted,” he said in Filipino.

He said he placed a harness around Robredo’s body in preparation for bringing him up to the surface.

“It was a bit difficult because the secretary was heavy-set, so while I was strapping him up I was apologizing to him,” Brizuela said.

After about 10 minutes, he said he signaled to Vergara to come forward, and they both saluted to honor Robredo.

“I was not scared at all and was even talking to him as I held him, telling him that I was picking him up. I asked permission to strap him up… but I was really sad,” Brizuela told The STAR.

Brizuela and his team were still in Masbate yesterday, awaiting orders to proceed to another mission.