Lone survivor’s book on Magsaysay plane crash launched anew

March 17, 1957, was a tragic day for Filipinos after a plane crashed on Mt. Manunggal in Balamban, Cebu. The nation mourned because the aircraft—the presidential C-47 army plane named Mt. Pinatubo—had as passengers then President Ramon Magsaysay, government officials, the president’s staff, and journalists. 

Magsaysay, who was going back to Manila after speaking engagements in Cebu, and 25 others traveling with him died in the plane crash. Among the fatalities were then Education Secretary Gregorio Hernandez Jr., Cebu Congressman Pedro Lopez, former Senator Tomas Cabili, and Philippine Air Force chief Brigadier General Benito Ebuen. The pilot, Major Florencio Pobre, and co-pilot Captain Manuel Navea, were also among those killed.

In fact, all the plane’s passengers, except for one, died in the plane crash. That lone survivor was the journalist Nestor Mata of the Philippines Herald. 

Mata had third-degree burns on his arms, thighs, and legs. Despite his injuries, he dictated a dispatch to a nurse at the hospital to break the news that the president was dead. Later on, he wrote the memoir “One Came Back: The Magsaysay Tragedy” together with Vicente Villafranca. The book, published in 1957, detailed the tragic accident and gave readers a profile of Magsaysay from the point of view of a journalist covering the Malacanang beat.

It quickly sold out and went out of print. Decades after, on Tuesday, March 18, 2024, the family of Mata launched a new edition of the book at the University of Sto. Tomas’ Miguel de Benavidez Library. The event also marked the 67th anniversary of the plane crash.

During the launch, Magsaysay’s daughter Mila Magsaysay-Valenzuela said she first met Mata at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center when she and her mother, then First Lady Luz B. Magsaysay, visited him after they buried the president.

“I’ve never seen a burn victim before. But when I saw Nestor Mata, I wondered how will he recover. Doctors said he will recover. But that would be an arduous and long time, I thought to myself. But I said a prayer, ‘Please God, help him.’ …Just a few weeks after, he was slowly recovering. He was dictating this book!” she said.

Valenzuela said she is hoping the book will be read by students—the young ones—“because not many people know many things about my father.”

“In this book, I hope that people realize that life is so fragile and fragile as it is, I hope it inspires people to live life with a lot of consequence, integrity, and love of country,” she added.

“The book ‘One Came Back’ serves to immortalize the legacy of President Ramon Magsaysay and Nestor Mata…My father believed that God saved him for many reasons, foremost of which is to write a firsthand account of the tragic plane crash,” Mata’s daughter Jocelyn said.

“This book is all about the most beloved president our country ever had, the most beloved Ramon Magsaysay who died 67 years ago. We wanted — my father especially wanted — for the next generation to come to know the life of one of the most wonderful leaders this country ever had,” Mata’s son Jan told GMA Integrated News.

Asked to name the legacy that her father left, Valenzuela said, “I would say two words: honesty, integrity of character, and love for humanity especially for his countrymen.”

Her hope for the nation is “to have such leaders. We are more than a hundred million people. There must be a lot of talents there who could be having those characteristics that make a good leader and … focusing on the work for the people and to help the people first from the bottom. Usually, it needs emergency help and go to the top. A government that’s bottom up.”

The new edition of “One Came Back” was published by Art Angel Commercial Quests, Inc. Copies of the book were donated to the UST Miguel de Benavides Library on Monday.

“I am very happy about it (the new edition) because the books (“One Came Back”) remaining in our library are already very dilapidated,” UST Prefect of Libraries Rev. Fr. Angel Aparicio also told GMA Integrated News. —NB, GMA Integrated News