By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief
ILIGAN City ― A part of the ashes of one of the pilots of the ill-fated C-30 will be buried in Canada even as the other part will be buried in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani in Manila.
This was the statement of Brilla Gamboa, a cousin of Maj. Michael Benolerao, the co-pilot who was among the fatalities of the C-130 plane that crashed July 4 in Patikul, Sulu. Gamboa is a public school teacher here and had known Michael even when they were still youngsters and the guy was even playmates of her male siblings then.
It was then learned that Michael’s family had moved to Canada years earlier while the guy remained in the country and serving as a pilot of army planes shuttling back and forth from one place to another. In 2017 during the siege in Marawi City, he was active in pilot duties to and from said city.
Among his plans was that next year he would retire. Michael was 38.
The relatives of the pilot here are doing nightly prayers for him via zoom, it was also learned.
