PHNO-HL; VOLUNTEER GERMAN DIVER IN DIVING ACCIDENT RECOVERING WELL

VOLUNTEER GERMAN DIVER IN DIVING ACCIDENT
RECOVERING WELL
[PHOTO -A shot of German diver Danny Brumbach while he was being
dislodged from a rubber raft. Photo by Val Cuenca for
ABS-CBNnews.com]
DAVAO CITY, AUGUST 22, 2012 (ABS-CBN) By Dennis Gasgonia - The German
diver who met a diving accident while conducting retrieval operations at the
crash site in Masbate is recovering well.
Mario Montejo, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST),
told radio dzMM that the condition of Danny Brumbach, who underwent
decompression, is improving.
"'Yung last update was a few minutes ago lang, nakakapagsalita siya,
nakakapag-galaw ng kamay. 'Yung examination n'ya ay ok. We're still monitoring
pero very positive naman ang status," said Montejo.
Montejo said Brumbach works as a consultant for DOST.
The DOST secretary said the diver experienced decompression sickness while
conducting search operations for Interior and Local Government Jesse Robredo and
2 others.
"Definitely, lumutang siya ng mabilis kesa kelangan," said Montejo.
But Maj. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario, head of Task Force Kalihim, which
supervises the retrieval operations, said that Brumbach is on his way to full
recovery.
"He is now on stable condition, almost 95% recovered," said the general
during a press conference.
According to an earlier report, the technical diver came out of the sea
foaming at the mouth around 3 p.m.
He was initially rushed to the hospital but was brought to the shore minutes
later to be transferred to a Philippine Coast Guard ship which had a
decompression chamber.
Montejo said the German had volunteered to help in the search and retrieval
operations.
The 31-year-old diver, an open water scuba instructor, was part of a coral
restoration project in Bohol.
"That was the first of our encounters and our working relationship. Ngayon he
is more involved in our programs talaga," said Montejo.
The search teams retrieved Robredo's body from the crash site on Tuesday
morning
The bodies of Capt. Jessup Bahinting and his Nepalese co-pilot, Capt. Kshitiz
Chand, have yet to be retrieved.
Del Rosario said Brumbach's team was successful in tying a rope which will be
used to pull the plane out of the water.
"Nagpadive uli tayo para tignan ang nagawa nila sa ilalim… nakapagtie silang
ng main rope, nakatali na ngayon sa eroplano. We need two more para makuha natin
ng totally 'yung eroplano... hihiliain pataas," said Del Rosario.
EARLIER REPORT FROM THE INQUIRER
Aquino flies to Naga to brief Robredo kin Day 3 of search: No
trace of DILG chief, 2 pilots By Jonas Cabiles Soltes Inquirer
Southern Luzon 12:09 am | Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
[PHOTO -VOLUNTEER DIVERS President Aquino talks to foreign volunteer
divers as they prepare to join the search and rescue operation for Interior
Secretary Jesse Robredo at Sitio Boulevard, Barangay Ingay, Masbate City, on
Monday. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA]
MASBATE CITY—A pillow used by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo was dropped on
Sunday at the site where his plane went down, in the hope it would help in the
efforts to find him.

The search area was expanded Monday with foreign dive instructors joining 300
military and civilian rescuers looking for the wreckage of the light plane that
crashed at Masbate Pass on Saturday with Robredo and three others on board.

Dropping the pillow in the crash site was in accordance with folk belief that
if a pillow used by a missing person is dropped in the place where that person
disappeared, that person will resurface, according to Naga City Councilor
Elizabeth Labadia.

Labadia, who was with the group from Robredo's hometown that flew to Masbate
City on Sunday morning from Legaspi City in Albay, brought the pillow to be
dropped in the crash site.

She said the pillow was given to her by Robredo's wife, Leni, who chose to
stay at the family home in Naga City with their three young daughters and other
family members and close friends to wait for news about her missing husband.


Labadia said the pillow was dropped in the crash site, about a kilometer from
the shore, around 10 a.m. Sunday by Paul Cabug, a security aide of Robredo, who
went there on a flat boat.

Aquino goes to Naga

President Benigno Aquino, who was leading the efforts to find the wreckage of
the plane, traveled to Naga City Monday to brief Robredo's wife on the
developments in the search.

Mr. Aquino had been in Masbate City since early Sunday, personally overseeing
the search for Robredo, whom the President refused to give up as dead,
presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters in Malacañang.

Lacierda said Mr. Aquino's departure from Masbate should not be seen as "an
indication of anything."

"[The President] will personally brief Leni Robredo on the search and rescue
operations in Masbate," Lacierda said. "It does not imply any change at this
point," he added.

Lacierda said Mr. Aquino was returning to Manila by nightfall, but the search
for Robredo remained a priority for the President despite his departure from
Masbate.

Government continues

Lacierda denied claims that the Aquino administration had stood still since
Robredo went missing on Saturday.

He said Mr. Aquino managed to lead the search operations in Masbate because
of the long weekend brought on by the Muslim holiday of Eid'l Fitr Monday and
Tuesday's observation of the 29th anniversary of the death of the President's
father, Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

"A number of us who are Cabinet officials are still working and the President
is in touch with all his Cabinet officials," Lacierda said. "So let me assure
the public that the business of governance continues and there is no effect as
to government functioning," he said.

All agencies under Robredo's agency, the Department of the Interior and Local
Government (DILG), are all functioning, Lacierda said.

There had been talk since Sunday that Mr. Aquino had vowed to stay in Masbate
until Robredo's body was found.

When asked about it, Lacierda said Mr. Aquino wanted to be sure that the
search was going on and that he hoped for a "resolution." But the question of
staying in Masbate was "going to be a day-to-day decision," Lacierda said.

"At the moment, however, it all depends on the assessment," Lacierda said.
"There is a dive that is [going on] right now," he added.

Foreign divers

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas, designated spokesperson for the
search, told reporters in Masbate Monday that foreign technical divers who could
dive to depths up to 250 meters had joined the operation. The technical divers
were mostly Americans based on Malapascua Island in Cebu.

The search covers a distance of 1 km to 2 km from the coastline of Masbate
City, with a depth of 45 meters to 80 meters, Roxas said.

He said the search area was extended by 55 km from the Masbate coast—almost
the same length as the western coast of Ticao Island, which lies parallel to the
coastline of Masbate Island.

The area covers the Masbate Pass and parts of Ticao Pass, which separates
Ticao Island from Sorsogon, and Burias Pass, which separates Burias Island from
Sorsogon.

Masbate province has three main islands: Masbate, Ticao, and Burias.

Dangerous place

Roxas said the divers were concentrating on an area where the plane's flight
manifest was found on Sunday and where sonar equipment had detected metallic
objects.

The place is dangerous, Roxas said, as 200 meters from it is a ravine about
300 meters deep—impossible for divers to reach.

Roxas said the current was very strong in the area where evidence of a
wreckage was found Sunday.

"Probably the wreckage on the seafloor is being tossed [around] by the
current," he said.

On Sunday, rescuers found a portion of the right wing of the plane and a copy
of the flight plan underwater in that area, where what appeared to be skid marks
and metal parts on the seafloor were detected by sonar equipment.

Latest from depths

The technical divers went to that spot Monday and found the supposed skid
marks at a depth of 60 meters.

At his last press briefing at 6 p.m., Roxas said it was doubtful that the
skid marks were made by the plane's wreckage because they were "very regular and
perpendicular" to the debris found in the area.

He said debris found in the area, which was about 100 meters in diameter,
included plastic, glass parts and forks and spoons.

It was not certain, however, whether the debris came from the wreckage of the
plane, Roxas said.

A British diver took video pictures of the skid marks and the debris, he
said.

A team of analysts from the Navy and the Coast Guard was examining the
debris, he added.

The four-seat Piper Seneca carrying Robredo to Naga City from Cebu City
crashed in Masbate Pass as it was attempting an emergency landing around 5 p.m.
on Saturday.

Robredo's police bodyguard, Chief Insp. Jun Abrasado, escaped from the downed
plane and was rescued by fishermen.

Missing, besides Robredo, are the pilot, Capt. Jessup Bahanting, owner of the
plane and CEO of Aviatour Air in Cebu, and Nepalese copilot Kshitiz Chand.

Helping search

Roxas said in a radio interview on Sunday that Abrasado was helping the
search for the wreckage from his hospital bed by describing where and how the
plane went down.

Abrasado was bruised and his arms were in slings. President Aquino visited
him in the hospital, Roxas said.

In the chaotic moment before the plane went down, Abrasado embraced Robredo
and made sure their seatbelts were on, Roxas said, narrating the bodyguard's
description of the plane's last minutes.

"When he regained consciousness, he was still in the plane. The water had
risen up to his chest in the cabin and he tried to grope for Secretary Robredo
but could not find him. He swam out of the cabin," Roxas said.

Reformist

As head of the DILG, Robredo, 54, was in control of the 143,000-strong
Philippine National Police. He was popular with the public because the reforms
he introduced in the police and in the local governments.

In recent months, he had ordered investigations into alleged financial
irregularities involving construction of police stations and purchase of
helicopters and rescue boats.

Robredo was also playing a key role in the dismantling of private armies
allegedly deployed by some powerful provincial governors and city mayors ahead
of congressional and local elections next year.

Robredo is a close ally of President Aquino. In 2000, he was presented a
Ramon Magsaysay award, Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize, for reforms he
introduced as mayor of Naga City.

'Hopeful' but 'realistic'

At his home in Naga City, his eldest daughter, Jessica Mae "Aika" Robredo,
24, faced reporters Monday morning and thanked friends and all the people who
had been helping to give the family strength since Saturday night.

"It is a big help to us," Aika said, adding that after three days, the family
remained "hopeful" that her father survived the crash. She said, however, that
the family was also "realistic," and appealed for prayers.

In God she trusts

In Cebu City, the wife of pilot Jessup Bahinting, Margarita Bahinting, on
Monday said she entrusted her husband's fate to God.

Margarita Bahinting said, however, that she continued to hope that her
husband would be found alive.

"Nothing is impossible with God," she said. With reports
from Michael Lim Ubac and Kristine Felisse Mangunay in Manila; Jhunnex
Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; AP and AFP



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved




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