Chinese ship loaded with black sand sinks

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya—A Chinese-registered cargo ship loaded with magnetite sand sank off the coast of Aparri, Cagayan, on Saturday night, killing one of its 19 crew members, police said.

Chief Inspector Romar Pacis, Aparri police chief, said the cargo ship “Chang Da 216” capsized about 2 kilometers off Punta village, as it made its way to the Babuyan Channel at about 11 p.m.

Pacis said the lone fatality, Chinese Lin Guangbiao, drowned while he and two others tried to swim to shore. Another Chinese crew member, Lin Lihe, was reported missing.

The 16 other crew members—12 Chinese and four Filipinos—survived by riding on lifeboats. They were rescued on Sunday dawn by officials of Linao village, also in Aparri.

Police said the ship, which reportedly had been commissioned by San You Philippines Inc., came from Lallo town and had just started its voyage to China when it met huge waves upon leaving the Cagayan River delta.

San You is one of the foreign companies allowed by the Philippine government to conduct small-scale mining operations for black sand in Cagayan.

The rescued crew members were taken to the Charles W. Selby Memorial Hospital in Aparri for treatment, but doctors found them to be in good health.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Ernesto Relon, acting station commander of the Philippine Coast Guard station in Aparri, said the ship was set to transport its load of black sand to the port of Fuzhou in China.

Huge waves battered the 2,993-ton vessel in the Aparri delta, as the current from the Babuyan Channel and the water flow from the swollen Cagayan River converged, Relon said.

Philippine National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz said search-and-rescue operations were ongoing for one more member of the crew, a Chinese national, who remained missing as of Sunday morning.—Reports from Melvin Gascon, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and AFP