It was a windless and calm dawn of Saturday, Dec. 17, in Villanueva town in Misamis Oriental.
Saturnina Bawiin-Quilacio and other relatives were in a festive mood as they were travelling to Dumaguete for her niece’s wedding.
The 18-member contingent distributed themselves evenly among four motorized 24-foot pumpboats for the 12-hour ride to Dumaguete. After leaving at 2:05 a.m., the steady sound of their boats’ 12-horsepower diesel engines soon lulled many of them to sleep.
They were some 24 kilometers from shore, out of the protective covering of Macajalar Bay, when their troubles started. Gale-force winds generated by the northeast monsoon started to rock the boats away from each other.
“I can’t describe how big the waves were but they were huge!,” Quilacio said. Sometimes the waves would tower over them, threatening to plunge them into the abyss, and the next moment, they found themselves riding on top of the waves like they were lifted out of the water.
Back in their hometown, Quilacio’s nephew Gary Gian was starting to worry. Staying behind to watch over their house while the family was going for the Dumaguete vacation, Gian saw how the usually-bright sky was filled with dark angry clouds. Being a former fisherman, he knew his wife and three-year-old child, who were with Quilacio’s party, were encountering huge waves.
Gian decided to report the four pumpboats to the Coast Guard as missing. P/Ens Mary Ann Solares of the Philippine Coast Guard in Northern Mindanao told MindaNews that they dispatched the BRP San Juan, a search-and-rescue vessel, to look for the pumpboats, which was eventually forced to turn back to Cagayan de Oro due to big waves.
Solares said they sent out an alert signal or a Notice to Mariners about the plight of the small boats.
Later that afternoon, news reached the Coast Guard that one of the pumpboats had sought safety in Laguindingan town in Misamis Oriental, while another pumpboat was swept back to Libertad town.
“I was worried,”Gian told the MetroPost. “I knew my wife, son, and my other relatives were still in big trouble.” He sent text messages to his wife, but many of them went unanswered. “I resisted the temptation to call her lest she run out of battery,” he said.
Back on the boat at sea, Gian’s wife realized that her cellphone got wet with saltwater, and wouldn’t anymore function. From then on, they could only depend on Quilacio’s cellphone.
“We continued to travel amidst the waves. We were praying for God to help us reach the island we could see far ahead,” Quilacio said. By then, it started to get dark. The lights beaming on the distant shoreline served as their only guide.
Wet, cold, and hungry, they finally made it to shore shortly after sunset. “We thought we were in Dumaguete already but we learned that we had landed in Lazi, Siquijor,” Quilacio said.
In Lazi, people who learned of their plight gave them dry clothes and food. The Coast Guard did not allow them to continue with their journey to Dumaguete but arranged for free passage on board commercial passenger vessels the following day.
“God is good! Thank God we’re safe!,” Quilacio said.
