‘We thought the vessel was going to rescue us’

INJURED Herman Balmores, one of the fishermen rescued after a Chinese ship rammed their boat off Bolinao, Pangasinan, rests at the hospital in Vigan City. RICARDO RAGUINI / CONTRIBUTOR

BOLINAO, Pangasinan—“Thank God, we will be rescued!”

This was what eight fishermen from Pangasinan chorused when they saw a vessel approach their boat, which was adrift near an artificial reef in the waters of Bolinao town, after its engine had conked out on June 20.

What came next surprised them. Instead of stopping, the vessel rammed and destroyed their boat.

The fishermen scrambled to get any piece of debris to stay afloat. Herman Balmores, one of the three survivors, said he saw the mark “Hong Kong,” with Chinese characters below it, on the vessel’s stern as it went northward.

“We did not expect that the vessel would hit us because we were asking for help,” Balmores told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday.

One fisherman, Christopher Carbonel, died at Gabriela Silang General Hospital in Vigan City on Sunday while four others are still missing.

Surprise

Pangasinan Representative Jesus Celeste expressed surprise on Monday that the accident in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) involving a fishing boat from Bolinao and an international vessel has become a national issue.

“To us, that was normal. There have been many cases of fishing boats being rammed by larger vessels in the past,” Celeste said. “I know this because I am a fisherman myself.”

Celeste was founder and president of Bolinao Fishermen’s Association in the 1980s before he joined politics in the 1990s.

Jonalyn Hondrado (not Honrado as earlier reported), owner of the ill-fated fishing boat, AXL John, said it was the second time a boat she owned was wrecked by a large ship.

“That was about four years ago. Two of the fishermen are missing until now,” she said.

Light blue and red

Balmores said the AXL John was floating aimlessly in the West Philippine Sea when they saw the large ship, colored light blue and red, heading toward them.

“We all stood up in our boat and waved our clothes and Styrofoam [ice box] cover so they could see us,” he said.

But the ship did not slow down and hit the middle of the boat, tearing it apart, he said.

His cousin, Emedio Balmores, 40, the boat’s captain, said that when he saw the ship, he thought it was coming to rescue them.

“I was very happy because we would be home at last,” Emedio said.

But what followed next turned out to be his worst nightmare. “We realized that we were all alone after all,” he said.

Wooden boat

The eight fishermen set out to the West Philippine Sea in a 16-horsepower, two-engine wooden boat in the afternoon of June 17 when the waters were calm in Bolinao.

They were heading to an artificial reef, called RM Triple 2, located 300 degrees northwest, based on their compass reading, Emedio said. Their reference point is the lighthouse in the coastal village of Patar here.

At the artificial reef after 10 hours of sea travel, they tied their boat with a length of 13 meters (39 feet) to a buoy with a rope and started fishing.

Emedio said they caught about 100 kilograms of assorted fish when huge waves, with crests  as high as 5 meters, battered their boat on the night of June 19.

The rope later snapped, Emedio said, and they were carried by the current to the north, to the boundary of Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan.

Before noon on June 20, when the sea was calmer, the large vessel smashed their boat.

Boat debris

Emedio could not say how big the cargo ship was, but described it to have a round bow and boom cranes.

“We clung to the debris of our boat. But later that day, one of my companions swam away,” Emedio said. He could not remember the fisherman’s name because he was meeting four of them for the first time.

By Thursday morning, Emedio said there were only four of them. “The others may have given up and got separated from us,” he said.

Herman Balmores said they ate their catch of fish and the uncooked rice they saved from the wreckage. They drank rain water they collected by spreading their raincoats.

When they ran out of food and water, they munched Styrofoam ice boxes and drank seawater, he said.

“We did not have anything to eat so we needed to do that. It was like eating pork cracklings,” Herman said.

Rescued

On Saturday morning, after four days of floating in the sea, two fishermen from Magsingal, Ilocos Sur,  rescued them.

Emedio said his global positioning satellite device at that time indicated that they were 133 kilometers (72 nautical miles) north. They were very far from the disputed Scarborough Shoal because to go there, the compass reading must be 210 degrees southwest, he said.

“Our boat does not have the capability to go there,” Emedio said. “Also, we were all very weak and cold.”

Carbonel was the weakest among them, he said. “I even helped him get into the boat of our rescuers,” he said.

Still missing are Fred Celino, Arnold Garcia, Domy de los Santos and Amante Resonable, all of Arnedo and Concordia villages in Bolinao.

Rescue teams from the Philippine Coast Guard, local government and Office of Civil Defense in Ilocos have been scouring the waters of Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces to look for the four.

Like a matchbox

Celeste said it was possible that the ship’s captain did not see the fishermen’s boat. “In the open sea, a small fishing boat looks like a matchbox,” he said.

He urged authorities to investigate and find the ship,

He said the area where the collision happened was 148 km (80 nautical miles)  from Bolinao’s coastline and part of the international sea-lane.

On Sunday, Celeste’s brother, Mayor Alfonso Celeste, sent an ambulance to Vigan to fetch the survivors and take Carbonel’s body home.

The Balmoreses and Marcelino Damian, 34, were still weak when interviewed by reporters here on Monday. They had bruises in different parts of the body.

Celeste ordered them confined at the Bolinao rural health unit.

Damian said he would return to the sea once he recuperates. “This is the only livelihood I know,” he said.