Naga City, the hometown of the late Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo is all set for today's state funeral.

Work on the landscape of his final resting place is ongoing at the Eternal Gardens. The state funeral will be held at the Naga Imperial Crematory and Columbary, in Barangay Balatas, a kilometer away from the Basilica Minore de Peñafrancia where his remains lie in state until this morning.

PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome is on top of the security preparations for the ceremonies.

President Benigno Aquino III will lead the nation in bidding goodbye to Robredo. Thousands are expected to attend the final rites for the well-loved DILG secretary and former mayor of Naga City.

Meanwhile, experts from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines are now in Masbate City conducting an investigation on the plane crash involving a Piper Seneca private aircraft that killed Robredo and its two pilots last August 18.

The group, headed by aviation industry expert Capt. Amado Soliman, belongs to the Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board, a statement from the office of CAAP director William Hotchkiss said.

Soliman's panel, Hotchkiss said, is now scrutinizing every detail that could be gathered from the wreckage of the ill-fated six-seater twin-engine aircraft owned by the Aviatour Flight School based in Cebu.

The plane, piloted by veteran pilot Capt. Jessup Bahinding and Nepalese student-pilot Kshitiz Chand, was supposed to take Robredo home to Naga when it reportedly developed an engine trouble minutes after take-off from the Mactan International Airport in Cebu and plunged into the sea off Masbate City.

The badly damaged body of the plane whose wreckage was retrieved by divers from the ocean floor with sea depth of 180 feet three days after the incident, is now under safekeeping by the CAAP at the Moises Espinosa Memorial Domestic Airport in Masbate City.

The investigators hope to determine what triggered the plane crash by going over every detail of its flight, aircraft condition and air worthiness, Hotchkiss said.

Earlier, Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of Transportation and Communication had said President Aquino has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident to find out if it was human error or technical problem that caused the incident which resulted to the loss of one of the most respected and admired members of his Cabinet.*PNA

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