Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
COTABATO CITY — The Navy and local government units on Tuesday rescued 78 passengers of a distressed boat and its seven crewmen in the territorial seas of Tawi-Tawi, now in the custody of the Bangsamoro social services ministry, the regional police announced on Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters here on Thursday morning that the Philippine Navy’s PC390 sea patrol craft immediately towed to Bongao, capital town of Tawi-Tawi, the M/L Dhiemal that went adrift several miles off the Sibutu island municipality in the province after its engine malfunctioned.
“We ought to thank the Navy unit in Tawi-Tawi for its immediate response to that incident,” Nobleza said.
Nobleza, citing a report from the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office, said that the M/L Dhiemal was supposedly bound for the seaport in Bongao from Tandu Banak in Sibutu when its engine conked out about nine miles off from its port of origin.
Officials in Tawi-Tawi of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao had endorsed the rescued boat passengers and crewmen to the provincial office of the Bangsamoro government’s Ministry of Social Services and Development.
The MSSD regional office here and the provincial government of Tawi-Tawi had separately vowed to provide them with essential humanitarian support and facilitate their return to their places of origin.
— John Unson
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