Survivor didn’t even know how to swim

VIRAC, Catanduanes—One of the 10 fishermen from this island-province who went missing at the height of Tropical Storm “Falcon” on Wednesday was considered the least likely to come back alive as he did not even know how to swim.

Prospero Tabios, 53, the oldest in the group and so far the only survivor, was found on Friday in the waters off Mapanas town in Northern Samar by a local fisherman. A Navy plane flew Tabios to Virac on Saturday.

Tabios told the Inquirer that the motorized banca he rode with companion Paquito Tabuzo overturned after waves broke its outrigger. “We clung to the overturned boat,” he said.

With no food and water, they floated at the mercy of the sea until Tabuzo began seeing things, imagining a wave as the mountain of an island, he said.

“We will die anyway,” Tabios recalled Tabuzo as telling him before Tabios lost consciousness.

When Tabios woke up the following morning, Tabuzo was no longer there. It was sometime later when he saw the outline of a mountain and resolved to himself that whatever happened, he would reach that island.

Clinging on the sides of the banca, he went underwater to get a pole with colorful banners tied to it, surfaced and hoisted the pole upon the overturned vessel. He later heard the sound of a motorboat.

“I am still alive!” he thought when he saw the banca of fisherman Junar Pajares. They reached the shore in three hours.

Tabios, weakened by exhaustion and hunger, was immediately taken to the hospital. On Saturday, he was brought back to his home province and was met by his five children. He and his wife Lucy separated three months ago.

With Tabuzo presumed dead, authorities are still looking for eight other fishermen who were caught in a squall about two hours by boat east of Catanduanes. The eight were Antonio Bailon, 40; Nestor Mandasoc, 50; Vicente Tapit, 40; Pedro Balingit, 37; Jason Balingit, 16; Rolando Tabor; Denver Sta. Ines, and Jonsy Rodriguez.

Three other fishermen in Vinzons town in Camarines Sur, a woman in Ligao City in Albay, and a 3-year-old child in Laguna have remained unaccounted for.

Franklin Tabor, 33, a fisherman who managed to get back to shore that scary Wednesday, said the weather began to get worse at 10 a.m. so he and his companions decided to go back at noon. “The waves were as large as houses and we could no longer see the island,” he said.

It was so hard to see through the rain, Tabor said, so they went around in circles until they met another boat and inched their way back to shore in Barangay San Vicente.