Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael Encina, public information officer of PCG-7, speaks about the fire that engulfed a ferry in the seas off Dapitan City. CDN Digital photo | Alven Marie A. Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Philippine Coast Guard in Central Visayas (PCG-7) said there was no delay in the rescue operations of the Coast Guard Station (CGS) in Dapitan on the burning ship alarm reported on Wednesday dawn, August 28, 2019, in the seas off Dapitan City in Zamboanga del Norte.
Lite Ferry 16, which was en route to Dapitan City from Samboan town, Cebu, caught fire just three nautical miles from the Palauan Port in Dapitan City.
Read: Ferry catches fire off Dapitan port; passengers’ rescue operation ongoing
Three passengers—two adults and a one-year-old child—were reportedly killed in the sea tragedy.
Read: Two confirmed dead in ferry fire
A passenger from a passing ship that was one of the first to respond to the fire alarm claimed that no help came from the PCG hours after the fire was reported.
“Impossible po yun,” said Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael Encina, public information officer of PCG-7. (That’s impossible.)
Here is part of his interview:
“Ininform na kami sa Coast Guard Dapitan na 11 p.m. pa lang nag rerescue operation na sila. ‘Yun ang isa sa mga mandate natin. Hindi po namin pinagwawalang bahala kahit false alarm yan na distress, we always veryfy it and render the necessary assitance to any repoorted maritime distress,” Encina added.
(We were informed by Coast Guard Dapitan that at 11 p.m. [of Tuesday, August 27, 2019], they were already doing rescue operation. That’s one of our mandates. We don’t take anything for granted even if it is false alarm distress, we always verify it and render the necessary assistance to any reported maritime distress.)
Read: Management promises to take care of needs of MV Lite Ferry 16 passengers
Encina said the PCG Dapitan tapped passing ships to help in the rescue of the passengers of the burning ship.
“It just so happened lang na yung vessel sa PCG doon came from Cagayan de Oro pa. So it takes time. Ang ginawa ng PCG Dapitan ay tinap nila yung mga other ships to respond immediately to the maritime incident,” Encina said.
(It just so happened that the vessel of the PCG there came from Cagayan de Oro City. So it takes time [to travel to dapitan]. What PCG Dapitan did was to tap other passing ships in the area to respond immediately to the maritime incident.)
Encina said that Dapitan is under the jurisdiction of PCG Northern Mindanao, whose base is in Cagayan de Oro City.
Among the ships that responded first was a fastcraft and wooden motorbancas sailing in the area at the time of the distress.
Based on initial investigation, the fire started in the engine room of the ship that had 28 rolling cargoes.
Encina said they still cannot disclose the exact details as they are still waiting for reports from CGS Dapitan.
As of this writing, PCG-7 is still working to determine the exact number of passengers rescued and those missing. /bmjo