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CLARK AIR BASE, PAMPANGA: In 1998, when she sat in the cockpit for the first time, Rosemawattee Remo was not just fulfilling her dream — she was also making history by becoming the first female Muslim pilot in the Philippine Air Force.

Born and raised in Sulu, in the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines, Remo grew up in a traditional household where male and female roles were clearly defined.

Her decision to join the military, travel some 1,000 km away from home and fly aircraft was not initially welcomed.

“My father was a (school) principal then and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps,” she told Arab News.

“The day before my departure to Manila, I told him that I had a scheduled flight and he told me: ‘You’re way ahead of your brothers ... we’re still alive and you’re already making decisions on your own.’”

But she did not feel discouraged: “Those words keep ringing in my ears every time I’m at my lowest,” she said. “(They remind me) that I can’t give up.”

Holding the rank of colonel and currently serving as deputy wing commander of the PAF’s 410th Maintenance Wing, Remo started her military career in 1992 with the Women’s Auxiliary Corps under the Armed Forces. A year later, she enrolled in the Officer Candidate School.

Her graduation in 1994 coincided with the implementation of a landmark law that for the first time allowed women to hold combat and leadership roles in the army, navy, air force and police — positions previously exclusively for men.

“We were nearing our graduation. We were told to draw lots and, fortunately, I took the Philippine Air Force,” Remo said.

Four years later, she started her training as a pilot and soon specialized in helicopter rescue missions. Assigned to the PAF 505th Search and Rescue Group, she flew Bell 205 and Huey helicopters for disaster response and served as a co-pilot aboard a larger Sikorsky or Black Hawk for military transport and relief missions.

Married to a fellow PAF pilot, she has three children and has always found ways to balance her military service with motherhood — and even make them complement each other.

In the aftermath of deadly Typhoon Frank in 2008, when she flew relief operations in Central Mindanao in conditions suitable for flight, she had two major motivations that kept her going: the distressed people on the ground suddenly filling with hope as they heard the chugging sound of helicopter blades, and her own kids waiting for her at home.

“I always brought them along with me in the deployment area, so every time I got out of the aircraft I saw my kids waiting for me,” she said. “I needed to go back home right after the mission ... I had to do everything to survive.”

Col. Remo has flown more than 2,000 hours on critical missions — search and rescue, relief, rehabilitation. She also took part in skydiving exhibitions between 1999 and 2014.

The first Filipino Muslim woman in such a role, she tries not to see her achievements as anything extraordinary.

“I always keep my feet grounded,” she said. “If you have a dream, then you have to persevere and find ways to attain (it).”

LONDON: A Palestinian family of six who are stuck in Gaza despite having permission to join a relative in Britain asked London’s High Court on Wednesday to make officials reconsider their refusal to ask Israel for help to leave the enclave.
Lawyers representing a Palestinian couple and their four children said the family were given leave to enter the United Kingdom to join the family member, who is a British citizen.
A London tribunal ruled earlier this year that the family should be permitted to enter the UK, in a decision which was publicly criticized by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch in February.
But the family’s lawyers say Britain’s foreign ministry is refusing to provide assistance because it will not ask Israel whether the family can leave Gaza to provide the biometric data needed to travel to Britain, as there is no operating visa center in Gaza.
Tim Owen, a lawyer representing the family, said they were asking the High Court to order the foreign office to reconsider its decision.
Owen said in court filings that three of the family’s four children had recently been fired upon when attempting to access aid, with one of the children also having been struck in the wrist by shrapnel from a tank shell.
He told the court that there was a “consular-level process which has been established by Israel” in order to evacuate people from Gaza, but that the foreign office “have not even made the request.”
The foreign office, however, says evacuating citizens from Gaza is incredibly complex and that Britain can only offer support in exceptional circumstances.
The department’s lawyer Julian Milford told the court that the foreign office was aware of 10 people in Gaza with unconditional leave to enter Britain and a further 28 with permission, subject to biometric checks.
Milford cited evidence from a department official urging caution over the “expenditure of political and diplomatic capital with Israel and others” in relation to such cases.
The family’s lawyers say they were, like nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, displaced by the conflict which began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory war has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. (Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alison Williams)