Search on for 8 missing boat passengers off Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Search and rescue missions have been intensified to recover the eight passengers who went missing off Cagayan waters while on board motorized bancas during the height of typhoon Karen  over the week.

Reports indicated that joint Coast Guard-Maritime police search and rescue personnel continued their search on the missing persons whose boats reportedly sank off the Calayan group of islands in this northernmost province where the eye of the recent typhoon passed through on Aug. 20.

Authorities identified the missing persons as Dennis Caraybe, Teofilo Capiz, Christopher Irece, Dexter Calapini and Ernie Payas, the boat captain of MV Saint Joseph which sank off Barangay Balatubat, Calayan town; and Nelson Bumgat, Alfredo Bumagat and Gil Manalo. M/BCA Perpetual Help, also capsized off Barangay Camiguin in the same island town.

Authorities said that they are still confirming information about another motorized boat registered as M/V AAA that also reporteldy drifted in the same vicinity over the week. It was not known how many persons were on board the said boat.

The passenger-cum-fishing boats, one of them reportedly loaded with bags of copra and iron scrap, sailed at sea to ferry passengers and goods amid the stormy weather. 

Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo said that their commandant, Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, has ordered the additional deployment of search and rescue teams to help recover the missing persons.     – With Evelyn Macairan