ILOILO CITY — All 223 passengers and 37 crew of M/V Filipinas Cebu are safe after it ran aground off an island in Concepcion, Iloilo, past midnight Tuesday, August 9.
“All passengers and crew have been accounted for,” said Commander Paterno Belarmino Jr., chief of the Philippine Coast Guard (Iloilo).
“Fortunately, the weather was good and no one was hurt,” Belarmino told Manila Bulleitn in a phone interview.
The cargo and passenger ship of Cokaliong Shipping Lines left the port in Iloilo City around 7 p.m., August 8, and was on its way to Cebu City when the incident occurred.
According to Belarmino, M/V Filipinas Cebu steered away from hitting a fishing vessel when it was near Igbon Island.
The ship’s master was then able to make a distress call and the sub-station of PCG-Iloilo in Concepcion immediately deployed a rescue team.
Cokaliong dispatched a ship from Cebu City to fetch its passengers and crew.
Jhon Rey Asturias of the Concepcion Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (Concepcion MDRRMO) said there’s no oil leakage from M/V Filipinas Cebu despite a small hole found.