COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Men of the Army Special Forces (SF) rescued on Thursday night eight passengers of a motorized banca overturned by heavy waves while approaching this city’s western coast.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said members of the 11th Special Forces Company managed to pull out the passengers from the water one by one and evacuated them to the city’s Kalanganan shore using their Australian-made airboats.
The passengers included employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who were on their way to the city via the Tamontaka River.
Hermoso said it was fortunate that a certain Datu Bong Sumlay, from the office of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos here, promptly informed officials of the 11th SF Company, a component unit of the 5th Special Forces Battalion, about the sea mishap.