4 rescued as pumpboat sinks off Surigao City

SURIGAO CITY — Four passengers, including an infant, were rescued after their pumpboat sank off the coast of Surigao City Saturday afternoon, the Coast Guard and Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) said.

In a report, lawyer Castaños, Marina officer-in-charge, said the city’s emergency rescue and Coast Guard teams jointly rescued the passengers of the pumpboat MB Sharmaine which sank minutes after it had left the city’s port on its way to Barangay Talisay on Nonoc Island.

"People at the Surigao City pier noticed the passengers of MB Sharmaine waving their hands for help (and immediately informed the city’s emergency rescue team)," Castaños said.

Meanwhile, Surigao City Mayor Alfonso Casurra told The STAR that 14 passengers of the ill-fated MB Leonida II were still missing, saying that four South Korean divers, in their last dive last Dec. 15, found only one trapped inside the sunken ferry.

But he said the South Koreans believe that retrieving the body would bring them bad luck.

The sunken ferry was found about 100 meters deep off Halian Islands where it went down on the afternoon of Nov. 25 while on its way to Del Carmen town on Siargao Island.

Last Dec. 11, residents of the coastal barangay of Halian in Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte found the body of 47-year-old midwife Thelma Burdeos.

Burdeos was identified through her college ring. Her husband, Renato, also died in the tragedy.

Only five of the 14 missing passengers were among the 48 passengers listed on the ferry’s manifest.