PAF jet missing as soldiers, rebels clash in Bukidnon

One of the FA-50 fighter jets of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) photographed during a training exercise in Darwin, Australia in July 2024. The PAF confirmed that one FA-50 fighter jet goes missing on Tuesday dawn, 04 March 2025. PAF file photo

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 04 March) – A Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jet went missing dawn Tuesday at about the same time the military said they called an air strike to support its troops battling a band of 70 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the Pantaron Mountain Range in Bukidnon.

Col. Antonio Duluan Jr., commander of the Army’s 403rd Infantry Brigade, told reporters they have requested support from the Philippine Air Force (PAF) to soften the defenses of the NPA rebels who have gathered near Cabanglasan town in Bukidnon’s boundary with Agusan del Sur.

Duluan told reporters the air strikes happened between 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Michele Anayron, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said they could not confirm whether the planes used in the air strikes in Cabanglasan were FA-50 jets.

Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo, Philippine Air Force spokesperson, said in a statement broadcast on television that the FA-50 fighter jet, with two pilots on board, went missing during a “tactical night operation.”

“Shortly after midnight on March 4, 2025, an FA-50 fighter jet went missing during a tactical night operation,” Consuelo said.

She said the South Korean-made fighter bomber jet “lost communication with the rest of the flight involved in the mission minutes before reaching the target area.”

The other aircraft, she said, “repeatedly attempted to establish contact with the missing aircraft” until it returned to the PAF air base in Mactan, Cebu.

She said that the PAF is “conducting extensive and thorough search operations utilizing all available resources to locate the missing jet fighter.”

Residents of Cabanglasan posted videos on Facebook being roused from their sleep by the sound of planes thundering over their houses.

Cabanglasan Vice Mayor Renante Inocando, in an interview over dxMB Malaybalay, clarified that the encounter did not occur in his town but in an area that belongs to Agusan del Sur.

Lt. Col. Francisco Garello, 4ID spokesperson, said over Brigada News FM in Cagayan de Oro that the 403IB “acted on reliable intelligence provided by the community” when they launched operations at Barangay Iba in Cabanglasan to run after the communist rebels.

He said that their operating troops engaging the NPA rebels “needed air support for the larger confrontation.”

Garello said that the PAF sent air support but admitted that he did not know what kind of aircrafts were deployed.

The PAF has acquired 12 FA-50 fighter jets from South Korea in 2014 at a cost of P18.9 billion. They have seen action in the Marawi Siege in 2017 and in various operations against the NPA. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)