THE Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has shifted to retrieval operations in Palawan where seven fishermen went missing after their boat figured in a collision with a cargo vessel last Saturday.
“We’ve shifted from search and rescue operations to search and retrieval operations,” PCG commandant Adm. Artemio Abu said in a briefing where he also announced the filing of criminal charges against four officers of the cargo vessel, MV Happy Hiro, which is under PCG custody in Antique..
PCG spokesman Commodore Armand Balilo said a shift to retrieval operations means there will no longer an “active search” for the missing fishermen.
“We terminated search and rescue… We already covered 500 square nautical miles (in the search and rescue operations),” said Balilo.
Abu said he hopes that the families of the missing fishermen will understand the PCG decision.
But the PCG is not declaring the missing fishermen as dead.
The fishermen’s boat, FB Jot-18, and MV Happy Hiro, which was sailing under the flag of Marshal Islands, collided near Macaranao Island in Agutaya town in Palawan last Saturday.
A transiting fishing boat, FB Bal 5, rescued 13 fishermen but did not find the seven others. Twelve of the 13 rescued fishermen had minor injuries.
Abu said the PCG filed charges against officers of MV Happy Hiro before the Antique Prosecutors Office on Tuesday afternoon for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, multiple injuries, and damage to property.
Charged were ship master Meshay Amir, a Croatian; second mate Bogdan George Antonie, a Romanian; and ship officers Tyrone Albina Maquiling and Mckinley Panuncialman Amante, both Filipinos.
On why homicide was included in the case when the seven fishermen are yet to be declared dead, Abu said: “That’s already subject to court litigation. We’ll talk about it there (court). That’s the process.”
Balilo said, “Under the law, we’re assuming them as already dead but we’re not declaring them as already dead. Only the court can declare that.”
