Rescue divers retrieve the wreckage of a Philippine Navy Bolkow helicopter, used for search and rescue operations, Wednesday, a day after it crashed and sank between two islands near the southern port city of Zamboanga. (AP)

After two days of extensive search missions, members of the Navy’s elite forces retrieved on Wednesday morning the bodies of the two pilots of the ill-fated helicopter which crashed off Zamboanga City, a military spokesman said.

The chopper crash and the eventual death of the two Navy aviators raised anew the issue of expediting the modernization program in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), amid the report that the helicopter was acquired by the Navy in 1975.

Marines Lt. Colonel Edgard Arevalo, Navy spokesman, said the bodies of Navy Lt. Junior Grade Jayrald C. Tamayo and Lt. Senior Grade Tristan Joseph Corpuz were discovered 14 minutes apart both at the vicinity of the Santa Cruz island located off Zamboanga City.

“The bodies of the two missing Naval aviators have been found, one after the other at 7:11 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. on Thursday,” said Arevalo.

Arevalo said it was the body of Tamayo which was first discovered floating two nautical miles west off Little Santa Cruz Island while that of Corpus 350 yards off Great Santa Cruz Island.

The official said it was the members of the elite Navy SEAL (Sea, Air Land) teams which discovered the cadavers after two days of scouring the vicinity since the Bolkov helicopter crashed at 11 a.m. last Tuesday in the area.

The chopper was taken out from the 80-foot deep water near Santa Cruz Island on Wednesday but the two pilots were not there, prompting Navy officials to believe that they are still alive.

"The Philippine Navy was hoping to find the aviators alive, owing to the indications that they were able to bolt out of the cockpit and their military pilot training for stability and immediate action for similar incident,” Arevalo said earlier in an statement.

It was recalled that the chopper crashed during a documentation mission of a military exercises in the area. Three of the passengers were rescued after the incident. But all the hopes that the two pilots were able to extricate themselves and were just floating in the seas were shattered with the discovery of their cadavers.

“The Navy mourns for this great loss of two distinguished Naval aviators who have participated in many combat missions and search and rescue operations until the air mishap,” said Arevalo.

“The efforts now shift from search and rescue mode to administrative—the determination of the cause of the crash and the processing of entitlements of the deceased pilots and their next kin follow,” he added.

But for Arevalo, the incident is more of the need to concentrate on the capability to upgrade of the Navy through acquisition of modern sea and air assets that they have been using in military operations and search and rescue missions.

The official confirmed that the Bolkov helicopter that crashed was already 35 years old, having acquired from Germany in 1975.

“What we want to highlight here following this incident is the urgent need of our Philippine Navy to upgrade and modernize its equipment,” said Arevalo.

Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III revealed his plan to lease the navy headquarters on Roxas Boulevard, the proceeds will be used for the capability upgrade of the military unit,

The same is through with the Philippine Air Force which has been the subject of unfair comments and jokes that it is a military service command with only full of air and no force because of the cases of accidents of its old choppers and planes, eliciting insulting comments that Air Force pilots are actually using “flying coffins”.