Hours after a Cessna plane with four passengers was reported missing last Feb. 18 shortly after taking off from the Bicol International Airport, at least 185 responders gathered in several barangays in Camalig town, Albay to form teams for search and rescue operations.
Camalig Mayor Carlos Irwin Baldo, the incident commander, said the teams were composed of personnel from the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and the Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the owner of the plane.
Providing support were member agencies of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) –the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the Office of Civil Defense.
In the plane were Capt. Rufino James T. Crisostomo Jr., mechanic Joel G. Martin, and Australians Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam.
As the search and rescue operations rolled out, the responders faced many obstacles – bad weather, difficult terrain, the New People’s Army, and a volcano under alert level 2.
Early in the operations, bad weather with strong winds kept a PAF helicopter from landing on a safe spot to drop off a search and rescue team, and a Navy aircraft sent later had also to turn back for the same reason.
The next day, authorities located the plane wreckage through an aerial inspection near the volcano’s crater but it could be reached only through very difficult terrain.
Two days later, NPA soldiers in the area ambushed a group of soldiers who were conducting search operations. Two soldiers were killed while they were buying food supplies for the team.
Meanwhile, Mayon Volcano is still under Alert Level 2 which means an “increasing unrest” that could lead to possible phreatic eruptions.
But all these difficult factors did not stop the rescue operations. Mayor Baldo said experienced mountaineers and trained personnel from the BFP were prepared to scale the mountain. They faced the risk of landslides due to continuous rains.
When the responders with the team leaders from the EDC and Search and Rescue Force (SRF) reached the area of the plane debris, they faced another obstacle: low to zero visibility.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Albay second District Rep. Joey Salceda confirmed the difficulty faced by the responders and apologized for the failure to retrieve the bodies: “The crash site (unstable ground, soil/rocks erosion, elevation/inclination) dictates that the retrieval operation should apply technical rope rescue such as different anchoring system, hoisting/lowering techniques, hauling, lifelines etc.”
“We cannot question the dedication and determination of our responders,” he said of the group who is the pride of Albay for their selfless dedication and skills honed by countless response operations from disasters like the eruptions of Mayon Volcano.
In the last few days, the responders coming from various agencies and professions have reminded us of the good side of people and the value of community. Whether they are trained government employees or volunteer private citizens, they do what they do because of a genuine concern for their fellowmen.
A network of trained responders around the country was created with the signing in 2010 of Republic Act 10121 which institutionalized the national disaster risk reduction and management plan with the local, provincial, regional and national government units.
On Friday afternoon, Mayor Baldo announced that the operation has shifted from rescue to retrieval.
In your Sunday prayers today, include a prayer for the safety of the responders. We need them in our communities.