Navotas police tackles toxic fumes case killing 2 workers

Police are trying to determine who should take responsibility in the death of two workers who were suffocated Saturday by suspected toxic fumes from a fishing vessel’s waste depository docked at the Navotas fishport complex.

"We are in the process of consolidating our reports to determine who should take responsibility for this tragic incident," SPO1 Melo Tengson, Navotas police investigator, said.

Tengson said the police are trying to ascertain the culpability of Frabelle Fishing Corp., owner of MV Alpine Rose, or the contractor who hired the victims to do the boat’s re-configuration.

Frabelle Fishing Corp., Tengson said, is owned by businessman Francis Laurel.

At about 9:15 a.m. Saturday, workers Edilberto Omega, 42, and Harold Decar, 35, with Gregorio Flaviniano, 45, Leonardo Bianes, 50, and Rene Hernandez, 39, all of Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas, were cleaning the vessel when the incident occurred.

According to Hernandez they were cleaning the lower decks of the ship when his companions opened its waste depository.

Hernandez told probers that he smelled something nauseating and quickly ran out while his companions immediately fell unconscious one after the other. The victims were rushed to the Tondo Medical Center but Omega and Decar were declared dead on arrival.

Flaviniano and Bianes remained in critical condition as of yesterday, their attending nurse Malou Bernardo said.

Bernardo said Flaviniano was being closely monitored due to continued vomitting.

Daniel Balondo, Frabelle Fishing Corp. security personnel, said that the 900-tonner MV Alpine Rose, arrived from South Korea last May 14 and was being rebuilt to transform it into a fishing vessel.