Man who jumped off ship missing, presumed dead

Elements of the Coast Guard of Central-Eastern Visayas yesterday have not found the 19-year-old man who jumped off M/V Ara when the ship was in the Gilutungan Channel on its way to Talibon town, Bohol, last Monday night.

Petty officer Manuel Tapang yesterday said that the four divers from their Special Operations Group did not find any trace of Stephen Torrefiel who jumped off the boat at around 11 p.m. last Monday.

Torrefiel reportedly jumped into water 1.5 nautical miles away from the shorelines of Cordova town. This caused a delay in the ship's travel time to Talibon, as a search and rescue operation was conducted for around two hours.

The incident was only relayed to the Coast Guard at 1 a.m. yesterday, Tapang said.

Tapang informed that four divers from their Special Operations Group then proceeded to the place of incident at about 2 a.m., but still failed to find any trace of Torrefiel so they decided to stop the operations at 6 a.m. yesterday.

The divers resumed their search for Torrefiel yesterday noon, still the effort exerted was futile. The Coast Guard believes that he might have been "swept away by heavy current to the open seas".

Reynaldo Gala-gala, the liaison officer of the B&G Shipping Lines, said over a radio interview yesterday that the family of the victim was already informed of the incident.

Gala-gala also said that there is a possibility that the family of Torrefiel will receive financial assistance from their company if it is proven that what had happened to him was an accident.

He, however, said that they are still to wait for the result of an investigation if the victim indeed jumped off the ship of his own will or accidentally fell from the M/V Ara. - Flor Z. Perolina