16 Facts About Nestor Mata

Nestor Mata was a Filipino journalist whose writing career spanned six decades.

Nestor Mata was known as the only survivor of the 1957 plane crash that killed President Ramon Magsaysay, and 25 others.

Nestor Mata graduated from the University of Santo Tomas where he obtained a degree in philosophy and letter.

Nestor Mata covered topics which involved politics and foreign affairs.

Nestor Mata had been seated near the presidential compartment and was half-asleep at the time of the crash.

Nestor Mata was initially rendered unconscious after the crash, and came to a few hours later.

Nestor Mata was rescued by Marcelino Nuya and several other farmers residing near the crash site.

Nestor Mata suffered second and third degree burns all over his body and would be hospitalized for the next six months.

Together with Vicente Villafranca, Nestor Mata penned One Came Back, a memoir detailing the last moments of President Magsaysay and his own ordeal after surviving the plane crash.

Nestor Mata then served with The Daily Express until Marcos' ouster during the People Power Revolution of 1986.

From 1986 to 1999, Nestor Mata penned as a regular newspaper column for the Manila Standard and from 1999 until his death wrote for the Malaya.

Nestor Mata acted as a co-executive editor for the magazine Lifestyle Asia from 1986 to 1999.

Nestor Mata worked as an associate professor who taught subjects on politics such as the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and talks on resolving the North Borneo dispute.

Nestor Mata was involved in chess having won executive chess events in the 1970s.

Nestor Mata became a board member of the now-defunct Philippine Chess Federation and led the Philippine delegation to the Chess Olympiad in 1994 in Moscow, Russia.

Nestor Mata died on April 12,2018, at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in San Juan, Metro Manila.