21 rescued from damaged boat

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Twenty-one persons, including 14 foreigners, were rescued from a motorized boat off Cauayan town in Negros Occidental near midnight Friday after one of the vessel’s outriggers broke, the Philippine Coast Guard said Saturday.

No one was reported injured.

Eleven of the foreigners, who were described as French, Swiss, German and Spanish, arrived in Iloilo City at 6:40 a.m. Saturday aboard the search and rescue ship  MCS 3006, according to Commodore Athelo Ybanez, Western Visayas Coast Guard commander.

Three other foreigners, who had organized a diving trip to Cebu,  and the boat’s seven Filipino crew members opted to stay on the boat, which managed to sail slowly to Nueva Valencia on Guimaras island, officials said.

Lt. Cmdr. Dominador Senador, commander of the Coast Guard’s  Iloilo station, said the boat was on its way from San Jose, capital of Antique province, to Oslob in Cebu when one of its outriggers was damaged eight miles off Sojoton Point in Cauayan.