PCG steps up search for missing Myanmar ship crewmen

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) yesterday stepped up the search for 14 missing crewmembers of a Myanmar ship that sank off Bolinao in Pangasinan Saturday night.

Melchito Castro, director of the Office Civil Defense in Ilocos, said the PCG made an aerial survey at 8 a.m. but failed to find the missing crew of MV Arita Bauxite, including the ship’s captain.

The identities of the missing Myanmar nationals remain unavailable.

Officials from the Myanmar embassy were expected to arrive yesterday at the PCG station in Sual town to check on the condition of nine crewmembers who survived the incident.

Embassy officials will bring them back to their country following coordination with Philippine immigration officers.

Fernando de Guzman, chief of the Pangasinan disaster risk reduction and management council, said the survivors were taken to the PCG station in Sual town Sunday night. Two of them were hurt and had to be airlifted to the Lorna Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union.

The survivors were Kyi Win, 38; Aung Kyaw Khine, 38; Khin Macmg Win, 34; Aung San Win, 38; Aung Thu Nyein, 29; Win Zam, 40; Win Nin Thein, 30; Cho Aye, 52; and Thant Zin Moe, 29.

They were taken from a Chinese ship, MV Jin Cheng, which rescued them.

“We conducted medical check-up and fed them,” De Guzman said.

The body of Mying Aung, the ship’s chief cook, was brought to a funeral parlor in Alaminos, Pangasinan. 

The Myanmar vessel sank in the waters of Cape Bolinao at 11:30 p.m. Saturday after it encountered engine trouble while on its way to Indonesia.

Oil spill found

Meanwhile, PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo yesterday said traces of oil were found at the site where MV Arita Bauxite capsized.

Balilo said the pilots of the PCG helicopter helping to locate the missing Myanmar nationals noticed an oil spill 10 nautical miles northwest of Bolinao.

“We have informed the PCG’s Maritime Environment Protection Unit about this development,” he said.

PCG commandant Rear Admiral Rodolfo Isorena has ordered the dispatch of BRP EDSA to Bolinao to widen the scope of the search and not limit the operations to the site where the Myanmar vessel sank. – Alexis Romero, Eva Visperas, Evelyn Macairan