CEBU CITY, Philippines — A five-year-old boy remains missing after the pump boat he and 23 others boarded going to Calape town in Bohol province capsized at around 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 1, 2023, off the waters of Barangay Sangat in San Fernando town in Cebu.
The group of 24 individuals, who are residents of Barangay Manipis in Talisay City, were travelling to Bohol province to attend a supposed birthday celebration of a relative there.
Pantaleon Busquit of the San Fernando MDRRMO said that the owner of the pump boat is also a relative of the victims.
The accident happened when the passengers were transferring to another pump boat from Calape that met them in the waters off Barangay Sangat.
While the passengers were transferring to the other pump boat, heavy waves caused the other pump boat to capsize, throwing off some passengers.
Those who were first to transfer and were already on the other pump boat reported the incident to the San Fernando Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), which then sought help from the Philippine Coast Guard in Central Visayas (PCG-7).
Personnel from the PCG and of the San Fernando MDRRMO managed to rescue 23 other individuals.
Among the rescued individuals was a one-month-old baby and nine other minors, whose age ranged from 1 to 17 years old. A total of 13 of the passengers were adults. All of these passengers are relatives.
Unregistered
The rescued passengers were safely brought to the shoreline of Sitio Filomena in Barangay Sangat.
Stephen Pagcaliwagan, information officer of PCG-7, said that they have yet to confirm if the pump boat that capsized was authorized to travel or not.
“We will confirm but by the looks of it, murag unregistered and unauthorized to carry passengers,” Pagcaliwagan said.
Authorities continued their search and rescue operations past 9 p.m. but they were not able to locate missing kid. They opted to stop operations past midnight of January 2 because of unfavorable sea conditions.
/bmjo
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