Missing PAF pilot finally home in Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – After six months missing in the waters of Bataan, Air Force Capt. Michael Arugay finally returned home here Monday afternoon.

Arugay, 30, was with Maj. Neil Tumaneng when their trainer jet, an SF 260, plunged into the sea near La Monja Island in Bataan last May 18. Both pilots hailed from this capital city of Cagayan.

Tumaneng’s body was found last Aug. 19, just as the remains of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo were retrieved from the wreckage of a twin-engine Piper Seneca that crashed in Masbate Sea.

“I cried for days and nights after losing my eldest son. But I learned to accept his fate,” Arugay’s mother Martina, 52, told The STAR.

She said she was exhausted from grief during the six months of waiting to see her son’s body.

Arugay was the eldest of five siblings. He was supposed to be married to his long-time fiancée Chelsea, a computer engineer, last July 21.

Mrs. Arugay said her son had already paid for his wedding reception and all the expenses for the occasion. When he last talked with his parents two days before the crash, he asked them to travel to Manila to be fitted for their wedding attire.

Arugay’s father Nelson, 53, said he does not take it against the government that it took long before his son’s body was recovered.

“The Philippine Air Force and the Philippine Navy did their best and they showed their utmost persistence to retrieve my son and we extend our gratitude for it,” he said.

Reports said Arugay’s body, without the head, legs and arms, was recovered in Mariveles Sea in Bataan last Saturday. He was identified through the nameplate on his uniform. He will be buried on Saturday. – With Charlie Lagasca