Pirates seize 2 Navotas-based fishing boats in Tawi-Tawi

Two Navotas-based fishing vessels were reportedly seized last Saturday by armed men believed to be pirates off the coast of Northern Tawi-Tawi.

Marie Gutierrez, secretary of Irma Fishing Co. that is based at the Navotas Fish Port, said the fishing boats F/B Queen Bee Star and F/B Paul Gerard III with at least 50 crewmen on board were seized by armed men.

"We have no communication with our crew as well as the armed men who seized the fishing vessels," Gutierres told The STAR.

Gutierrez said the seized fishing boats were on the high seas off the territorial waters of Kangtipayan Dakula, Northern Tawi-Tawi when armed men aboard another boat boarded the fishing vessels.

She said that initial reports from the captured fishermen showed that the pirates introduced themselves as personnel of the Regional Ports Management Authority (RPMA) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) then boarded the fishing boats and cut off the communication lines of the two vessels.

Gutierrez said that they are not sure whether the armed men who seized their boats are pirates or from the RPMA, as the suspects earlier claimed.

"We are very much concerned for the safety of our crew for the last information we got was that the leader of the armed men, a certain Siccar Bassal, is asking P500,000 for the release of the boats and the crew," Gutierrez said.

She said that the Irma Fishing management is willing to give what the armed men demanded for the safety of the boats and the crew.

"The problem is, we don’t have any communications with them as of this moment," she said.

Gutierrez said that they have not received any report from concerned government agencies, particularly the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command and the Navy.

"Communication is also hard with the government agencies concerned because of the holidays. We are yet to hear a feedback from them," she said.