PCG sacks 2 Masbate officers pending probe

Two Philippine Coast Guard officers in Masbate have been relieved from their posts pending investigation into last Tuesday’s sinking of a motorized banca that left at least 42 people dead.

PCG commandant Wilfredo Tamayo said he ordered that Lt. Cmdr. Reynaldo Pabico, station commander in Masbate, and Petty Officer 2 Glicerio Villaluz, Cataingan detachment head, be removed from their posts.

“They have been relieved effective today but this is not to say that they are at fault. This is only to erase doubt that there is a whitewash in the investigation. They were relieved pending investigation,” Tamayo said.

PCG spokesman Capt. Enrico Evangelista earlier said the PCG would convene the Guard Internal Affairs Service to determine if Pabico should be reprimanded for the sinking of M/B Don Dexter.

As of yesterday morning, the PCG said the death toll was still pegged at 42, with 101 survivors and nine still missing.

“As of this time I am not inclined to call off the search and rescue efforts. I don’t give up that easily. If by this Sunday, we would still not find the nine missing persons then I think that may be the appropriate time to call off the search,” Tamayo said.

Reports said the M/B Don Dexter capsized off Magcaragit Island in Uson, Masbate some 30 minutes after it had left the port of Dimasalang town en route to Bulan, Sorsogon.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary for Maritime Transport Ma. Elena Bautista met last Thursday with the owner of M/B Don Dexter, Amiel Tamayo, and his administrator and father-in-law, Jean Zuniega, who both promised to give the mandated P200,000 insurance to each of the families of those who died in the mishap. 

Bautista reminded Tamayo and Zuniega that running a shipping business is not a game. “I told them that operating a vessel is no joke and that they need to have life vests on board and not to allow the ship to have excess passengers,” she said.

In a related development, a fisherman died while three others were rescued when their vessel capsized off Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte last Thursday morning, police said. – With Ben Serrano and Serafin Jopel Esmiller III