Avelino Fortuna, the Coast Guard’s Bicol commander, identified the fatality as Henry Villamarin, 35, and the three injured as Mila Comel, 39, and her niece Marladen Abayon, 20, both from Alabang, Muntinlupa City, and Amy Cortez.
Fortuna said the pump boat, Regina I, with 40 passengers and 10 crewmembers, left the Pilar port at about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday.
But after 30 minutes, while in the vicinity of Tinco Point, huge waves and strong winds buffeted the vessel, forcing it to tilt to its side. The boat sank about 1.5 miles from the port.
"I prayed to God for help at bahala na siya sa akin," Abayon recalled. She fainted when she got trapped inside the engine compartment.
Pablito Dino, 40, the boat’s captain, rescued the unconscious Abayon who had already swallowed a lot of seawater mixed with diesel fuel, and revived her through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Comel and Abayon were with some six male personnel from GMA 7 when the boat sank. The group was to document the arrest of a child abuse suspect in Masbate City.
Seaman Hernan Boholst, 39, and his wife Nora, 34, were with their two children, Clin Angelo, 12, and Jesette, 9, who were both excited after buying their uniforms and school supplies here.
"The sea was calm when we set sail at about 1:15 p.m.," recalled Boholst. Then the tragedy.
He narrated: "I didn’t let go of (my) two (children) as I forced Nora to hold on to the rope tied to the mast."
The passengers floated in the sea for four hours before they were rescued by crewmembers of the cargo vessel Glkscerie, the M/V Maria Cherubim and M/V Lanlan V.