SEVENTEEN Filipino sailors held captive by Yemen’s Houthi rebels for over a year have been freed and are set to return, President Marcos Jr said yesterday.
“Our Filipino seafarers are now in the care of our Philippine Embassy in Muscat, Oman and will be reunited with their loved ones in the Philippines very soon,” Marcos said in a social media post.
The 17 were part of the 25 crewmembers of the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader which the Houthis hijacked in November 2023 in the Red Sea while the vessel was en route to India, in retaliation to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The Houthi group has launched long-range missiles and attack drones against Israel since the Jewish state launched an offensive against Hamas that attacked it in October 2023. The Houthis have also attacked ships plying the vital shipping zones of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying it is a retaliation to Israel’s blistering offensive against Hamas.
The President Marcos thanked the Sultan of Oman, His Majesty Haitham bin Tarik, and his government for their successful mediation which led to the release and safe passage of the Filipino seafarers through Oman.
Marcos also commended Philippine government agencies and private entities that worked “tirelessly with foreign governments and entities for more than 429 days in making this momentous development possible.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the release “could not have been possible had it not been for the support and mediation efforts of the Sultanate of Oman, for which we are eternally grateful.”
Marcos also said the incident serves as a testament to the importance of signing the Republic Act No. 12021, or the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers into law, which will “protect their rights and overall welfare, to promote their full employment and to ensure equal opportunities in the maritime industry — regardless of gender or creed — including equitable access to education, training and development, consistent with existing domestic and international laws, standards and conventions.”
Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the 17 are all in “good spirit.”
“We know for sure that they are strong enough and willing enough to happily return to their families,” he added.
Cacdac said the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) have been providing assistance to the seafarers’ families while they were in captivity including psychosocial, medical, and financial aid.
TERRORIST GROUP
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday re-designated Yemen’s Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a “foreign terrorist organization”, the White House said.
The move will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Iran-aligned group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against US warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.
The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships plying the Red Sea since November 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
The attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa for more than a year.
The group has targeted the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are joined by the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. military sought to intercept Houthi attacks to safeguard commercial traffic and waged periodic strikes to degrade Houthi military capabilities. But it did not target the group’s leadership. – With Reuters