Divers recover wreckage of boat in sea collision

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Philippines—The search for the crew of the fishing boat that sank off Cavite province last week has ended after divers retrieved the wreckage of F/B Dan Israel L., authorities said Monday.

However, four fishermen remained missing.

The boat, carrying 23 crew members, sank after it was rammed by a still unidentified cargo ship in the evening of March 13 near Caballo Island, about 10 kilometers from the Ternate town proper.

Ternate police chief Senior Insp. Angelica Starlight Rivera said in a phone interview on Monday that the boat was pulled to the shore of Naic, a neighboring town of Ternate, on Monday morning and would be turned over to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

A day after the boat sank, 12 survivors were accounted for while 11 others were declared missing. In over four days of searching, however, only one of the missing was found to have survived the mishap. The remains of six of the 10 remaining missing fishermen were also found.

She said coastal residents in her town had been asked to stay alert and report immediately to police if a body was found on the shore.

Cavite police director Senior Supt. Joselito Esquivel said the “monitoring” of the shorelines was expanded to Bataan, Batangas and Mindoro provinces.

The bodies of two fishermen, identified as Benben Japson and Ronald Umpad, were recovered in the waters off Naic on Sunday. Rivera said the remains had to be buried on the same day in a single grave in Naic because “they were already bloated and decomposing, and could not be transported anymore.”

On Saturday, authorities found near the accident site the bodies of Romnick Rosales and Ruben Ursal, while those of Vincent de la Cruz and Jojo Sumbill were recovered on Thursday and Friday.

Lito Lasacar, another crew member, was initially reported missing but was found alive on Friday near Bataan.

Rivera said the four missing fishermen were Orley Ando, Roniel Ichena, Mark Tiangco and one identified only as Nilson in the police report.

Most of the crew were from Navotas City where the boat sailed from.

“We’d like to stay positive and keep on praying that they will be found alive [but] it has since been days,” Rivera said of the halt in the retrieval operations.

She said the cargo ship had not yet been identified, although an earlier Inquirer report quoted the PCG as saying that it was investigating the MV Virginia Kalikasan and MV Ocean Hope, both now docked at the Manila port and in the vicinity of Caballo Island at the time of the accident.