ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 04 Mar) Philippine and US troops on Saturday rescued at sea 15 people after their motor boat ran out of gas and drifted for hours off the southern Filipino island of Basilan, officials said.
Officials said the boat, rescued before dawn, was heading back to Zamboanga City from Basilan on Friday when it ran out of fuel. A US plane tracked down the boat and alerted the Philippine Navy about its location off Basilan's Maluso town, a known lair of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
Frencie Carreon, communications officer of the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said one of their staff Roland Ramos sent her an SMS from his cell phone, saying, the boat was drifting at sea.
"It was pitch dark and they were in the middle of the sea with no food and water, and we are lucky that US and Philippine military forces helped us tracked and rescued the passengers," Careon said, adding, she sought the assistance of Italian philanthropist Armando de Rossi, who was in Zamboanga City.
She said De Rossi, chairman of the 3P Foundation, came from a humanitarian mission in Jolo island with US military officials, and coordinated with American and Filipino navy to help in the rescue operation. De Rossi is also a member of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxilliary. "It is our duty to contribute our efforts to save them," De Rossi said.
Colonel James Linder, commander of the Joint Special Operation Task Force-Philippines, said the rescue operation was done by the Philippine Navy, and supported by the US Forces in “combined, shoulder-to-shoulder efforts in the true spirit of Balikatan.”
Balikatan is the codename of the ongoing joint RP-US military drill in the Philippines.
Most of those rescued were members of the AMORE and Mirant Philippines, the country’s largest energy-producing company, who went to Basilan to inspect project sites.
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