DA TO EXHUME, RETRIEVE
REMAINS OF 40 FISHERMEN
By Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) will undertake efforts on tuesday to exhume and retrieve the remains of 40 Navotas fishermen who drowned in Mangsee Island, Palawan on Dec. 23 last year and who were buried in a common grave.
Family members of the drowned fishermen will be flown to Coron, Palawan on Tuesday morning and will travel to Mangsee Island in Balabac to visit the common grave where their loved ones have been buried since the tragedy at the height of Typhoon Vinta last year.
The 40 were among the 79 crew of at least four “Hulbot-Hulbot” fishing boats owned by a rich Navotas fishing family who sought refuge in Mangsee Islands at the height of the typhoon.
The strong waves, however, crushed the fishing boats and 40 of the crew members drowned.
There was hardly any story which came out in the media about the tragedy and families of the victims accused the fishing boat owners of trying to cover up the story.
The 39 crewmembers who came back alive were reportedly given only P15,000 each and no efforts were made by the owner of the fishing boats to retrieve the remains of the 40 who drowned.
The story of the crusade of the widows to get justice and to retrieve the remains of their husbands, which was largely ignored by the mainstream media, was brought to my attention by Henry Omaga-Diaz of ABS-CBN two weeks ago.
Omaga-Diaz has worked alongside the families of the 40 fishermen whose remains were just dumped in one common grave in Mangsee Island.
Yesterday, I finally met with three of the widows of the fishermen who told me that their only dream to bring home the remains of their husband and give them a proper burial.
“Nananaginip po kami palagi. Humihingi sila ng tulong na kunin namin sila doon,” one of the widows tearfully told me last night when I met with them in my office at about 7 p.m.
Omaga-Diaz said he has sought help for the widows and orphans of the drowned fishermen and was already losing hope until he mentioned the tragedy to me two weeks ago.
The three widows who met with me in the office last night will be among the 50 relatives of the 40 victims who will be brought to Mangsee Island on Tuesday.
Retrieval operations will start earlier so that when they will arrive in the area the remains will already be in cadaver bags to be brought back by a BFAR ship to Manila.
The National Bureau of Investigation and the PNP-SOCO will be asked to help in conducting DNA tests to identify the cadavers.
When the identification process is completed, the victims will be given the proper burial, including those who will be brought home to towns in Leyte.
Every family will be given an assistance of P50,000 each for their livelihood programs.
The DA legal office will also be asked to review the case and initiate the filing of both administrative and criminal charges against the fishing boat operators, including several officials of the BFAR who allowed the sailing of the illegal Hulbot fishing boats from Navotas.
(Photos of the widows with me and ABS-CBN’s Henry Omaga-Diaz were taken in my office last night. The two other photos downloaded from public websites show Mangsee Island in Palawan where the tragedy happened on Dec. 23, 2017.)
More Stories
Former NPA Area Pilots Village Nursery, Free-Range Chicken Breeding & Goat Upgrading Program!
‘Toro Sa Barangay’ Goat Upgrading Program Starts In Luz Village, Mlang!
Cotabato Eyes Huge ‘Halal’ Meat Demand