CEBU CITY, Philippines — The body of a fisherman from Negros Occidental was found floating off the Marcos Shoal, Brgy. Hilotongan in Bantayan town, Cebu two days after he was reported missing in Negros Occidental.
The fisherman allegedly fell to the sea while he was sleeping on the prow of his motor boat and has been missing for days.
The dead fisherman was identified as 24-year-old Leo Legario Brosas, married and a resident of Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
Bantayan police received a call at around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 6, about a dead man found floating in the seas in the area.
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Together with personnel of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) Office in Bantayan, Cebu and the Bantayan Coast Guard Sub-Station, police officers responded to the reported sighting of a dead man in the sea.
Police, in a report, said that the Coast Guard used three motor boats to retrieve the victim’s body at sea.
When they returned to the dock at around 4:20 p.m., a physician conducted a physical examination on the body and found no signs of foul play.
The doctor assessed that the cause of the victim’s death was asphyxia by drowning, said the report.
The missing fisherman was positively identified by his wife, Eunese Perez Broza, who recognized the tattoo on the left arm of the dead fisherman.
In a phone call, Broza told authorities that her husband left their house at around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 3, to go fishing by the area of Baliguiang islet of Ilo-llo City fronting Bantayan Island, Cebu.
She also disclosed that she received a call from the victim’s colleagues that her husband accidentally fell off the motor boat while he was sleeping on its prow at around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 4.
After two days, the fisherman’s lifeless body was found in Bantayan, Cebu.
Because the body was already in a state of decomposition, the wife agreed to have him buried at the Bantayan Public Cemetery.