Scout-turned-priest now blesses fallen comrades

Ferdinand Bustos may have been a boy scout but nothing prepared him to lose 24 of his comrades in a plane crash 50 years ago, a flight he was also supposed to take.

 

In 1963, 20 Filipino boy scouts and four scouters were killed after their plane crashed into the Indian Ocean on their way to the 11th World Scout Jamboree in Greece.

 

Bustos, then 13 years old, was supposed to be the 25th boy scout on board the plane but he got chickenpox and was not able to make it.

 

"Nagkaroon [ako] ng lagnat noon, chickenpox... Nasa ospital ako noon. Kinabukasan dun ko na nalaman na wala na 'yung mga kasamahan ko," he said in an interview aired over GMA News TV's News To Go on Friday.

 

Several streets in Quezon City were then named after them, among them Scout Lazcano, Scout Chuatoco, and Scout Ybardolaza.

 

And even though the bodies of these boy scouts were never found, tombs were still erected inside the Manila North Cemetery in their honor.

 

Now Bustos, who became a priest, yearly visits these tombs and blesses them himself.

 

In his interview, the scout-turned-priest lamented that the values he and his comrades wanted to propagate have been lost on today's youth.

 

"Nagkakaroon kami ng discipline noon 'di kagaya ngayon magugulo na ang mga estudyante sa iba-ibang mga siyudad," he said.

 

But he said all is not lost and that there is still hope for them. He even encouraged them to join the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, which he promised would be a rewarding experience for them.

 

"Kaya nila 'yan. Pumasok [kayo] sa scout para magkaroon tayo ng mas malakas na kaalaman," he said. —Kimberly Jane Tan/KG, GMA News