15 Pinoy seamen from sunken ship arrive home

(Updated 1:38 a.m. April 8) Fifteen Filipino crewmembers of a Barbados-registered cargo vessel that sank off Spain arrived home Wednesday afternoon, while two more are expected to arrive Thursday. The 15 arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 1 via Thai Airways, Radio dzBB's Nimfa Ravelo reported. Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) joined the seafarers' families in welcoming them home. DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Executive Director Enrico Fos on Tuesday said representatives of the local manning agency and indemnity insurance company will assist and assure the rescued Filipino seafarers of insurance and other benefits. He said the manning agencies also assured the seafarers of employment when they are able and ready. On the other hand, benefits for the families of the two Filipino seafarers still missing—Leonilo Rosales and Jimmy Gabayoyo—have been readied as well. Caught in bad weather The Filipinos were serving aboard the vessel MV Kea when it sank in Cape Villano in Galicia, Spain from St. Petersburg, Russia to Colombia last March. It had 19 Filipino seafarers on board. In a newscast on 24 Oras, Dacayan recalled their ordeal in the ship after it was caught in a bad weather. “Biglang nagkaroon ng malaking lihis ‘yung barko. Medyo naalarma na kami noon kaya umakyat na kami kaagad sa bridge (A huge wave hit the side of the ship. We were then alarmed so we immediately went up to the bridge," Dacayanan said.
Of the 19 Filipino seamen, 17 were rescued. Fifteen were treated at the San Rafael Hospital in Coruna, Spain while two arrived in Rotterdam last April 3 after being rescued by another vessel, MV Sapphire. Two more arriving Thursday As this developed, two more Filipino seafarers from MV Kea are due to arrive home Thursday. The DFA said Franklin Belano and Roldan Macatangay are expected to arrive Thursday morning from Amsterdam. "(Belano and Macatangay) were accompanied to the Philippine Embassy in The Hague by a representative of SCUA Rotterdam B.V., their vessel's insurance company, who met them upon their arrival in Rotterdam on April 3. They were then immediately issued travel documents," the DFA said in an update on its website. According to the DFA, the two were rescued in Rotterdam by another vessel, MV Sapphire. The DFA quoted Belano and Macatangay as saying waves caused by bad weather hit their ship near the Atlantic coast of Galicia, Spain. Because of this, the ship suffered mechanical trouble and substantial damage including gaping holes in the hull. Its captain sent out a call for help and ordered the crew to abandon ship. Within a short time, two ships within the vicinity and a rescue helicopter from the Spanish maritime authorities arrived. The two swam to the MV Sapphire while the others were rescued by the helicopter and the other ship. In the newscast, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said the seafarers will have to undergo debriefing. “Titingnan natin kung paano natin sila matutulungan sa kanilang livelihood; mayroon tayong programa tungkol diyan. Tinanong naming kanina kung gusto pa nilang bumalik sa pagmamarino, gusto pa nila," OWWA administrator Carmelita Dimzon said. (We will see how we can assist them with their livelihood as we have a program for that. We asked them earlier if they would still want to go back to being seafarers and they said yes.) The DFA has also assisted in the processing of the sailors’ documents such as passports which were lost in the tragedy.—JMA/JV, GMANews.TV