ONE person was confirmed to have died when a passenger pumpboat capsized off the coast of Kinatarcan Island in Daanbantayan, northern Cebu on Friday night, Oct. 29, 2021.
Daanbatayan Mayor Sun Shimura told SunStar Cebu that the victim was identified as an elderly woman.
Shimura said that the passenger pumpboat reportedly didn’t report to the Philippine Coast Guard’s station at the town and disembarked at the port in Barangay Poblacion with an unknown number of passengers at around 6 p.m. on Friday.
Shimura added that no manifesto was provided to the Coast Guard as of this writing.
He added that the operator of the passenger pumpboat also disregarded the town’s policy of not allowing vessels to disembark towards the island barangays beyond 5 p.m.
Personnel from Daanbantayan’s Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), the Coast Guard and the local Bantay Dagat are still conducting their search for the other passengers. (JKV)