A roll-on / roll-off (ro-ro) vessel carrying 157 passengers and crew members ran aground off Talibon, Bohol on Tuesday, Feb. 28, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported.

MV Starlight Saturn was traveling from Surigao City Port to Pier 5 in Cebu City when it suddenly ran aground in the vicinity waters off Danajon Bank in Brgy. Calituban around 4:15 p.m., a report from the PCG said.

The PCG said all 86 passengers, 55 crew members, 14 truck drivers and operators, and two Coast Guard marshals were rescued around 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 1. 

Accordingly, the PCG Command Center established communication with Seaman First Class (SN1) Cliftun Bert Etulle, one of the two Coast Guard marshals on the vessel, to inform them of their location and the condition of the passengers and crew members.

The passengers and crew were transferred to MV St. Camael, a rescue ship provided by Supercat shipping company which manages MV Starlight Saturn, before they were brought to safety at Cebu City pier.

Meanwhile, PCG’s BRP Malamawi and two Philippine Navy ships – BRP Filipino Flojo and BRP Enrique Jurado – were deployed in the area to monitor the grounded vessel as well as 12 rolling cargoes onboard.

The PCG also conducted an oil spill assessment to determine whether or not the incident resulted to oil spillage.

Luckily, the PCG said no sighting of oil spill was evident in the vicinity waters off Talibon municipality.

The grounding of MV Starlight Saturn occurred on the same day that motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress, a vessel carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, sank off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro which resulted to an oil spill.