In burning ship, tales of heroism, cowardice

CEBU CITY—An unidentified man helps two women stay afloat at sea while awaiting rescue. A ship crew officer gives up his life jacket to a passenger who had none. A ship crewman ignores calls for help.

These were just some of the accounts of heroism and cowardice that didn’t go down with MV Island Fast Craft I, which caught fire off Talisay City and sank last Sunday.

They proved, too, once more that tragedy draws out the best and worst in people.

Anthony Bautista, a businessman from Bohol, is focused on the best and has taken on a mission to search for and thank one of the heroes of last Sunday’s tragedy, a man his workers later identified as Jomar Mission.

Mission saved two female workers of Bautista—Gina Ahog, 22, and Antonette Cabillo, 30—whom Bautista brought with him for a day trip to this city as reward for good work.

Bautista, Ahog and Cabillo were among the passengers of Island when fire broke out in the vessel at noon on Sunday, causing it to sink about two hours later.

In a phone interview, Bautista recalled the scenes that unfolded while he and his female workers fought to survive as the vessel burned and started to sink.

Ahog and Cabillo jumped into the sea, but Ahog lost her life jacket and was taking in water. The women called out to an unidentified crew man for help, but the man ignored them and shouted the situation called for every man for himself.

A man already in the water, later identified as Mission, answered the call for help and swam in the sea as the two women held on to him. Ahog and Cabillo were rescued after about an hour by another vessel, Sea Jet.

Mission also survived and Bautista is now on a mission to find and thank him.

“I will offer him a job for his good deeds,” Bautista said of Mission, who is from Calape, Bohol. “I will go to Calape to search for the guy,” said Bautista.

Another act of heroism was attributed to one of those who died in the ship tragedy, chief mate Avelardo Torrevillas Sr. Survivor Cabillo, also in a phone interview, recalled seeing Torrevillas, with the help of other crewmen, trying to fight the fire with extinguishers and later with water from the vessel’s toilets.

The effort was futile and Torrevillas was left in the vessel after he gave up his life jacket to a passenger who had none. Along with Torrevillas, two others died in the tragedy—passengers Matea Infiesto, 62, of Clarin, Bohol, and Nicitas Cabrera, 75, of Panabo, Davao del Norte.

Bautista recalled his own good deed, helping a woman and her infant child put on their life jackets.