Who is Capt. Jessup Bahinting?

Born in Siquijor and raised in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Bahinting was first exposed to aviation through his father, who worked at the Civil Aviation Administration (now the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines).

At 19, he became assistant to Antonio Sabijana, the pilot of former Rep. Herminio Teves.
Bahinting, 60, chairman and CEO of Aviatour Air, told his Nigerian pilot to fly one of the company’s Cessna planes and get the antidote. The mission eventually helped save the life of Cebu City zookeeper Ronald Aventurado, who had been bitten by a king cobra.
He is considered a hero. As a matter of fact we were planning to award him on Charter Day,” Jakosalem said in an interview aired over GMA News TV's State of the Nation news program Monday night.

 

Aventurado, for his part, held back tears as he recalled how the 60-year-old pilot wanted to check his condition after suffering from a snake bite.

 

“Pupuntahan niya sana ako para tingnan ako pero hindi niya ako nakita. Siya pa ang na-missing at ako pa ang nabuhay,” Aventurado said in a separate interview.

 

Bahinting and his co-pilot Kshitiz Chand remain missing after the four-seater Piper Seneca they were riding crashed in the waters off the shoreline of Masbate City at about 5 p.m. Saturday, supposedly due to engine trouble.

 

Early Tuesday morning, Transportation Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II announced that Robredo’s body had been recovered at a depth of 180 feet off the coast of Masbate City.

Later in the day, Roxas said that another body, which has yet to be identified, was found inside the plane’s wreckage.

 

‘Model husband’

 

Aventurado, however, was not the first person saved by Captain Bahinting. The pilot's wife, Margarita Bahinting, said her husband considered saving lives as his “life mission.”

 

“When there was an earthquake in Negros, nagpadala kami ng relief doon. Noong bagyong Sendong, ilang beses kami nagpadala ng tulong doon. The people of Cagayan de Oro can attest to that. Kahit noong landslide sa Guinsaugon (in southern Leyte), nandoon siya,” Mrs. Bahinting said in an interview over ANC on Tuesday morning.

 

She also shared that his husband was an active pastor and Visayas area superintendent of the Grace Communion International, a Christian denomination.

 

Mrs. Bahinting also described the pilot as a “model husband.” The couple was supposed to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this December.

 

“Mapagmahal siya… He has already done his task here on Earth. I already accept what happened, but it is really painful,” she said.

 

Antonio Jereidini, training director of the aircraft rental company Aviatour Air which Bahinting managed, for his part, said that the pilot never hesitated to go on medical evacuation flights if necessary.

 

“He has always been very actively involved in flying. Almost all of his flights were mercy flights and medical evacuation flights,” Jereidini said in another television interview.