LUCENA CITY – At least three persons drowned while 60 others were rescued after their boat sank in Lamon Bay fronting Gumaca town in Quezon province late afternoon Friday, police said.
The MB Lady Aime left the Gumaca port to ferry passengers to Quezon town on the island of Alabat but it capsized at 4:40 p.m. a few kilometers away from the coastline of Barangay Villabota, said Chief Insp. Juan Byron Leogo, Gumaca police chief.
Leogo said as soon as the local police were alerted of the accident, a rescue team composed of Philippine Coast Guard personnel, policemen and fishermen was organized and sent to the area where the boat sank.
He said rescuers were able to save 60 passengers, some of them children.
But Leogo said three women – identified as Isabelita Monteverde Oliveros, Rosefel Oliveros and Susan Tajaro – drowned. Their bodies were taken to a funeral parlor in Gumaca.