|
Friday, April 21, 2006
Motorboat capsizes: crew man killed; captain, 1 other missing
CEBU CITY -- A service motorboat carrying eight crewmembers of a cargo vessel capsized off Liloan town, Cebu, Wednesday night, leaving one of the passengers dead and two others missing.
SPO4 Florencio Apuado of the operations section of the Liloan Police Station identified the fatality as Benjie Bulala, one of the 10 crewmembers of mv Michael-I, a motor tanker of William Shipping Corp.
Ship captain Captain Rodulfo Samillano, 60, of Sitio Suba, Poblacion, Liloan, and Romeo Monares Sangcap, 47, of Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City remained missing as of Thursday afternoon. Bulala is reportedly from Maranag, Bukidnon in Mindanao.
The Liloan Police Station received the call for assistance at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday but Samillano's wife, Ruth, in an interview Thursday morning over radio dyLA said the incident occurred at around 9 p.m.
The motorboat was on its way back to the ship anchored 250 yards off Sitio Suba, Poblacion, Liloan when it was battered by big waves and strong winds, causing it to capsize. Five of the passengers managed to swim ashore.
Local fishermen and divers found Bulala's body at around 2 a.m. Thursday.
One of the survivors was identified as Jaime Pilapil Roble, 55, of Sitio Landing Catarman, Liloan, Cebu.
But Apuado said the police team dispatched in the area failed to get the names of the four other survivors, reportedly all apprentices, because they already sailed to help in the search and rescue operations.
Maritime personnel, local fishermen, and divers are still out in the sea, hoping to find Samillano and Sangcap.
Cebu Coast Guard Station Chief Manolito Malig-on on Thursday took exception to reports that the agency was too slow in responding when it received a distress call at 1:30 a.m.
He said the Mandaue City Coast Guard detachment immediately dispatched a rescue team that boarded a private-owned motorized boat.
"Maybe they didn't just notice our responding team," he said.
Samillano's wife Ruth, in a radio interview, said the cargo vessel that was carrying caustic soda was heading to Batangas from Iligan City.
She said the ship dropped by the shipyard in Poblacion, Liloan for the crew to leave messages for their families in Cebu.
The chief engineer, Ruth said, disembarked from the ship to go home to Barili. The ship fetched another engineer to serve as his replacement.
Her husband, meanwhile, took the opportunity to drop by their house to talk about their youngest daughter who will be entering college this June.
Ruth said her husband and the other crewmembers did not stay long and headed back to the ship at around 9 p.m. on board their service motorboat.
But big waves and strong winds battered the motorboat. Ruth said her husband is a good swimmer and hopes that he is still alive. (JST/GC of Sun.Star Cebu)
(April 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
High court rules against Arroyo gag order