Filipino seafarers from hijacked vessel return home

Some 19 Filipino seafarers from the recently-freed MT Samho Dream arrived home and have met with Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials. The DFA said the 19 were met at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) officials. "All the seafarers are in good health and in high spirits, and were very glad to be home," the DFA said in an article posted Sunday afternoon on its website. The 19 were second officer Junne Agcol, third officers Jacobo Gelbolingo and Reynold Villostas, Mark Anthony Opina, Quintin Licyayo, Noel Rapanut, Clarence Calimag, Reynaldo Nicolas, Jonathan Dalangin, Eric Llonoso, Alvin Purto, Chester Galang, Dennis Manuta, Celso Panaligan, Ronald Igama, Regym Pulvera, Danilo Miralles Jr., Jonathan Penales and Klint John Aquino. Meeting them at the NAIA last Nov. 13 were DFA-OUMWA special assistant Enrico Fos and representatives. Four of them met with DFA-OUMWA Executive Director Ricardo Endaya on November 17. The seafarers said around 50 Somali pirates, armed with AK 47s, cal-.45 pistols, and rocket-propelled grenades, boarded MT Samho Dream. They said the pirates used the vessel to capture a smaller Iranian flagged fishing vessel that they later used to capture MV Polar. According to the seafarers, all the hijackings happened not in the Gulf of Aden, but in the Arabian Sea. The Marshall Island-flagged and Korean-owned MT Samho Dream was hijacked by Somali pirates at the Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden on April 4. It was en route to Louisiana, USA from Iraq when it was captured by the pirates. The vessel was released last November 6. - KBK, GMANews.TV