DUMAGUETE CITY–A Philippine Navy patrol gunboat rescued Tuesday a motorized banca with foreign tourists near Apo Island off southern Negros Oriental.
LtJg. Froilan Villaviza, executive officer of the BRP Jose Andrada PG 370 told the MetroPost that they rescued the Mb Esmeralda del Mar some 5 nautical miles northeast of Apo island at 11:24 a.m.
The passengers, 10 American, two British, one German and three Filipinos, were guests of the Coco Groove Beach resort in San Juan town in Siquijor, where the boat came from, Villaviza said.
The Master of the motorized banca, Pretty Boy Manalastas, told rescuers that they came from the Coco Grove Resort in San Juan, Siquijor.
Manalastas said he lost control of the boat after they lost their rudder around 10 a.m. and he immediately informed Coco Grove about their predicament. The management of Coco Grove Resort, in turn, called the Philippine Navy for help. Luckily, the BRP Jose Andrada was nearby to respond.
Villaviza said all the passengers, including its four crewmen, were safe and were taken to Apo Island.
The BRP Jose Andrada, skippered by Lt. Rainier Pagsugiron, conducts regular patrols off Negros Oriental, southern Cebu, Siquijor and Bohol.
This was the Philippine Navy’s second rescue operation of a passenger boat in two days. Last Sunday, the Navy dispatched a vessel, along with another boat from the Philippine Coast Guard, to assist the disabled Azamara Quest, an 11-deck cruise ship which lost power and was drifting in the southwestern Philippines.
