Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Nine fishermen rescued near Zamboanga





Nine fishermen whose trawler sank off the southern Philippines were rescued Wednesday, February 9, 2011 off Zamboanga City. One fisherman is still missing and feared dead after their boat was battered by huge waves, the survivors, who are natives of Cebu province in central Philippines, say at a hospital in Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)


ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 9, 2011) – Nine fishermen whose trawler capsized at sea under bad weather were rescued on Wednesday off Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines.

One survivor said another fisherman is still missing and feared dead after huge waves and strong winds battered their trawler FB Sheila and sank. “We are so lucky to be alive. We ate nothing but drank our urine to survive our ordeal. One of our companions is still missing and he could be dead, we don’t know,” said 44-year old Danilo Dublin.

The survivor said a group of local fishermen spotted their lifeboat drifting at sea and rescued them. They were initially brought to a clinic in Labuan village and eventually transferred them to Zamboanga Medical Center for treatment of severe sunburn and dehydration.

Another survivor said their trawler broke into two after huge waves battered their vessel off Tawi-Tawi province in the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines while they were sailing back to Cebu province in the central Philippines.

“It was horrible. We were all terrified and thought we will never be able to survive the ordeal,” he said.

Most of those who survived were frail and weak. They said they left Cebu on January 27 to fish in Tawi-Tawi, but were trapped in the middle of a bad weather last week.

Medical staff and patients at the hospital who learned about the fishermen’s ordeal gave them food and medicines. “They are lucky to be alive. Luck is really with them,” said Bien Urgananza, who was visiting a patient at the Zamboanga Medical Center.

Doctors said the fishermen were undergoing a series of medical test and have been provided antibiotics and given intravenous fluid. (Mindanao Examiner)

3 comments:

Lady ELLE said...

hi, i would like to ask any contact information, or where can we reached them. thank you.

Lady ELLE said...

how can we reach them?

The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper said...

Hi Lady Elle,

You may get in touch with the Zamboanga City Medical Center and these are their phone numbers 062 9919463 and 9912934.


Mindanao Examiner
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