The search for a group of missing Philippine fisherman was called off on Monday by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). The four fisherman have been missing for two weeks after their small fishing vessel was smashed into by an unidentified foreign ship in the South China Sea.
Although the sea based search for the men has ended, the coastal patrol search will continue. The PCG district operations chief overseeing in northwestern Luzon region where the men went missing, Lieutenant Senior Grade Jomark Angue, has stated that members of the PCG will continue to search on the shores of the Ilocos province. According to their estimations, the bodies of the missing men may have reached the shoreline and been washed up by this time.
The identities of the missing men have been confirmed as Fred Celino, Arnold Garcia, Amante Resonable and Domy de los Santos, all from the Barangays Arnedo region of the Philippines. The fishermen were separated from their colleagues after their fishing vessel collided with a foreign ship on 20 June 2012, shortly after departing from Bolinao harbor.
The four companions of the missing men were found a few days after the incident and rescued by the fishermen from Magsingal, Ilocos. However, one of the rescued men died in a Vigan City hospital from injuries related to exposure the following day.
Lieutenant Angue said that the PCG searched the area where the men were likely carried by the ocean currents for three days before giving up the marine search. On Sunday, Angue dispatched a ship to Batanes to respond to a distress call from an Indonesian cargo ship, the MV Krairatch Dignity. The rescue ship passed through the area where the men went missing, and the PCG rescue team conducted a second search for the men at this time.
The family members of the missing fisherman say that they accept the decision of the PCG to call off the search. Maritess del Fiero, sister of one of the missing men, said to the media that she has accepted that her brother has gone. All she could hope for now that the search has ended is that fishermen may find her brother’s body and bring him home for a decent burial.
Alfonso Celeste, the mayor of Bolinao, is holding out hope that a foreign embassy will contact him to tell him that a foreign vessel rescued the fishermen. If they were not rescued, their chances of survival out at sea are slim.
