Cargo ship apprentice drowns off Consolacion

A 22-YEAR-OLD apprentice engineer drowned after he jumped to the sea to recover a wallet which fell from a cargo ship docked in barangay Tayud, Consolacion town, northern Cebu.

Ariel Montebon, an apprentice engineer of Lady of Prosperity cargo ship, failed to emerge after he jumped into the sea at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The body was found floating at 6:15 last night.

The wallet containing P300 was owned by the ship’s cook.

Randy Casquite, 21, another apprentice engineer, was holding the wallet when it fell overboard.

Montebon, a native of Iloilo, dove into the water to find the wallet, PO3 Arthur Ariate of the Consolacion police station said.

The ship was docked at Sandoval Shipyard near the Cansaga Bay Bridge.

Ariate said Montebon emerged from the twice. He failed to emerge in his third attempt to find the wallet.

Casquite called his co-workers when after five minutes Montebo failed to emerge from the water.

Co-workers tried to find Montebon using flashlights.

A retrieval operation was conducted by the divers from the Navy and Coast Guard.

Montebon was not found until the search was stopped past 11 p.m..

Police said it was possible that Montebon hit his head on the hull of one of the ships docked in the area when he tried to emerge from the water./Correspondents Tweeny M. Malinao and Fe Marie D. Dumaboc