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Monday, January 26, 2004
2 fishermen die, some 50 others 'missing'
DAGUPAN -- Rescuers on Sunday continued to scour the Lingayen Gulf for some 50 fishermen from La Union reported missing since Friday, as the bodies of two in the group were fished out of the sea off Ilocos Norte.
The two, whose bodies were recovered Sunday, are believed to be among over a hundred fishermen from the towns of Bangar, Luna, Bacnotan, Caba and Bauang who had gone fishing Friday but who failed to return after strong winds and huge waves buffeted their boats off La Union.
Lt. Commander Roel Tolin of the Philippine Coast Guard detachment based in Dagupan City pegged the number of missing fishermen at 100, not 70 as earlier reported.
Police, however, said joint air and sea rescue operatives have rescued 38 of the fishermen near the South China sea.
Over a hundred fishermen, aboard about 70 small fishing boats, ventured out to sea on Friday but ran into strong winds, the civil defense office said.
Last Saturday, villagers of Balaoan, La Union, discovered the lifeless body of a fisherman and later learned he was one of the fatalities of the sudden squall in La Union province.
At Poro Point, Captain Eduardo Legaspi, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) commander for North Luzon, reported that rescuers recovered one fatality off the coast of Sual, Pangasinan.
Authorities identified the dead fisherman in Sual as Lito Carribay of Caba, La Union.
Senior Supt. Samue Diciano, director of the La Union Provincial Police Office, also reported the dead bodies of the two fishermen who were found floating off the South China sea were already brought back to their hometowns.
"We are hoping that rescuers will rescue the missing fishermen before Monday," Diciano said.
Another 67 fishermen aboard 12 boats, who were originally reported as among those missing, have managed to return home but there was no information on the other vessels, the civil defense office added.
Legaspi said the weather had been fair when the fishing boats set out but they were hit by a sudden squall that took them by surprise.
The coast guard expressed hopes some of the missing had already reached the shore but had not yet reported to authorities that they were safe.
Coast Guard vessels and Air Force planes and helicopters are searching for the missing boats amid hopes the fishermen may have taken shelter in nearby islets.
Search and rescue operations could not be started Friday because the coast guard was not where the fishermen were, said Tolin.
"All we could do was to monitor," Tolin said, adding they readied the 24-footer motorboat given by Speaker Jose C. de Venecia Jr. because it could go against the big waves.
Family members and relatives of 17 missing fishermen from Barangay San Carlos in Caba, La Union, sought assistance Friday from a radio station in the city for a coordinated rescue by coast guard detachments in the province.
Barangay San Carlos Councilman Romulo Pagaduan said of the 25 commercial fishing boats sailed that out on Friday, only four vessels returned on Saturday.
He believed the missing fishermen could have been brought by strong waves to the coastal towns in the first district of Pangasinan, a view that Tolin shared. (Sun.Star Pangasinan/Sunnex Luzon/AFP)
(January 26, 2004 issue)
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