DFA: 2 more seafarers from sunken ship due Thursday

After 15 of their colleagues arrived last Wednesday, two more Filipino crew of a ship that sank off Spain last March are due to arrive home Thursday. The Department of Foreign Affairs (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 on its website. According to the DFA, the two – part of the crew of the sea vessel "Kea" – were rescued in Rotterdam by another ship, MV Sapphire. The DFA quoted Belano and Macatangay as saying that waves caused by bad weather battered 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. On Wednesday afternoon, 15 of the 19 seafarers arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. They are Renato Aguirre, Pablo Ventura, Corteza Carlitos, Jerome Dinoy, Dante Evalle, Ronnie Matias, Freddie Nunez, Arron Pamplona, Jonebit Rizan, Saturnino Romarante, Percy Leba, Eufronoio Libaton, Jovencio Pallado, Junniel Petracorta and Orlando Dacayanan. . [See: 15 Pinoy seamen from sunken ship arrive home] Welcoming them were DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) Executive Director Enrico Fos, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Carmelita Dimzon, and representatives of the local manning agency and indemnity insurance company. The "Kea" sank in Cape Villano in Galicia, Spain. It left St. Petersberg port in Russia and was en route to Columbia on March 29. It had 19 Filipino seafarers on board; 17 of them were rescued. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV