Armand Balilo News

The death toll from the capsize of three Philippine ferries in bad weather rose to 31 on Sunday as rescuers found more bodies, a coast guard official said.The motorised, wooden-hulled boats were carrying a total 96 passengers and crew when harsh weather conditions caused the vessels to overturn off the central island of Guimaras and Iloilo provinces on Saturday.The search continues for three more people still missing, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said. The rest of the crew and passengers were rescued.Disaster officials reported 11 deaths on Saturday.Balilo said a third ferry was not carrying passengers and…

The Philippine coast guard was searching on Monday for 17 crew of a landing craft that went adrift south of the capital, Manila, one of three weekend accidents at sea, an agency spokesman said. Sea accidents are frequent in the Philippines, comprised of more than 7,000 islands, with lax regulations, ageing marine vessels and strong waves all contributing. "Seventeen crew are missing and we are still looking for them," said the spokesman, Captain Armand Balilo, adding that the craft lost power near Fortune Island, a tourist spot in Batangas province. Elsewhere, authorities on Sunday rescued all 14 boat passengers, mostly tourists, on the holiday island of Palawan and 19 people from a boat in the southeastern province of Camarines Norte…

Four people were killed and seven were missing after a Philippine ferry with 251 people on board capsized during bad weather on Thursday near the capital, Manila, disaster officials and a coastguard spokesman said. Accidents involving boats sailing between the many islands of the Philippines are common. Vessels are often overloaded but the coastguard said that was not the case on Thursday and the ferry had the capacity to carry 286 people. A total of 240 people were rescued from the sea by fishermen and rescue boats sent out by the coastguard hours after the ferry capsized and sank…

Armed men killed eight fishermen in what appeared to be an attack by pirates in dangerous waters in the southern Philippines, a coast guard spokesman said on Tuesday. The apparent act of piracy came as Philippine soldiers were given a six-month deadline to end Islamist militant threats, including those made on cargo ships in south, where a long-festering insurgency has been exacerbated by the growing influence of the Islamic State militant group. About two dozen sailors and tourists were taken captive by Islamist militants last year in attacks on tug boats and yachts in the Celebes and Sulu seas, raising concerns among defence officials from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines about Islamist militancy and piracy.

Reuter reports that  the Philippines has released a North Korean freighter it had seized. The North Korean freighter was covered by harsher United Nations' sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear program. The 6,830 deadweight tonne (dwt) cargo ship M/V Jin Teng was one of the first sanctioned North Korean ships to enter a foreign port since the tightened sanctions were passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council. Thirty-one North Korean ships are on the list. Its 21 North Korean crew, left on Thursday afternoon for China after clearing immigration, customs, quarantine and port authorities, said coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo. "At the policy level, there is no more basis to continue to hold M/V Jin Teng after U.N.

The Philippines said on Saturday it had seized a North Korean freighter that was covered by harsher United Nations' sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme. Manila will also deport the vessel's 21 North Korean crew and will await a U.N. inspection team from the United Nations, foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose said in a text message. "In compliance with the United Nations resolution, the North Korean ship in Subic will be impounded and not allowed to leave port," he said. The 6,830 deadweight tonne (dwt) cargo ship Jin Teng was one of the first sanctioned North Korean ships to enter a foreign port since the tightened sanctions were passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. Thirty-one North Korean ships are on the list.

A passenger ship, owned by Roble Shipping, carrying more than 500 passengers caught fire at Ormoc port in Leyte, Phillipines early Saturday (August 15). Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commander Armand Balilo said 3 crewmembers of the M/V Wonderful Stars of Roble Shipping Line sustained minor injuries. Local authorities are now uncertain about what caused the fire aboard the ferry. According to the ship captain, the fire started at the vessel’s cargo hold and quickly spread. Balilo said all of the passengers – numbering 544, according to the manifest – safely disembarked from the ship but 3 crewmembers of the ferry suffered minor injuries when they tried to put out the fire. The ferry reached Ormoc before the fire broke out, but most of the passengers stayed and waited for daybreak.

Divers will search waters in the central Philippines on Friday for 15 people still missing after a ferry carrying 187 passengers and crew sank a day earlier, killing 38 people, the coast guard said. There were 134 survivors after the MBCA Kim-Nirvana, a motorised outrigger, capsized minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc City. The number on board was revised down on Friday after it was found two crew members did not board the ferry. Search and rescue operations continued through the night, with coast guard personnel reinforced by a Philippine navy ship and two air force planes. A formal marine casualty investigation into the cause of the sinking will begin on Friday, Philippine coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo told local radio.

MBCA Kim Nirvana, a passenger boat carrying 189 people has capsized in the central Philippines, minutes after leaving port, the Philippine Red Cross and coast guard spokesman Cmdr. Armand Balilo said. There were 173 passengers and 16 crew members on board, according to Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon. At least 39 have died, he said, and 134 survived. Seventeen people remain unaccounted for, he said. Regional coast guard commander Capt. Pedro Tinampay told DZBB radio in Manila that rescuers were using a barge with a crane to move the overturned boat to its side to make it easier for divers to find more bodies. Another crane will be used to raise it upright, he said.

A ferry carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized off the central Philippines in heavy waves on Thursday, killing at least 36 people but the majority of those on board were rescued, the coast guard and police said. The MBCA Kim-Nirvana, a motorised outrigger with 173 passengers and 16 crew on board, capsized minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 127 people survived, while 26 were still listed as missing. "Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Initially we learned that it was due to big waves," said Rey Gozon, director of the office of civil defence for the region. Scores, sometimes hundreds, of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands with a notoriously poor record for maritime safety.

Philippine and Japanese coast guard teams staged an anti-piracy drill on Wednesday, featuring the storming of a cargo vessel after a mock hijack, in a show of maritime cooperation between the two nations amid rising tension in Asian waters. Both nations face a challenge from China's growing assertiveness over territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where it uses coast guard and fishing vessels to press into disputed areas. Wednesday's drill was the first held by Japan and the Philippines after signing a strategic partnership pact in 2012. The exercises in Manila Bay were watched by the coast guard chiefs of 17 Asian nations, including China, who are meeting to find ways to cooperate in boosting safety and battling piracy and transnational crime.

Philippine and Japanese coast guard teams staged an anti-piracy drill on Wednesday, featuring the storming of a cargo vessel after a mock hijack, in a show of maritime cooperation between the two nations amid rising tension in Asian waters. Both nations face a challenge from China's growing assertiveness over territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where it uses coast guard and fishing vessels to press into disputed areas. Wednesday's drill was the first held by Japan and the Philippines after signing a strategic partnership pact in 2012. The exercises in Manila Bay were watched by the coast guard chiefs of 17 Asian nations, including China, who are meeting to find ways to cooperate in boosting safety and battling piracy and transnational crime.

The hijacked Indonesian cargo ship Rehoboth has been found abandoned in waters off Mati town in Davao Oriental province off the southern Philippines coast, says the  the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). PCG spokesperson Armand Balilo said the PCG- Southeastern Mindanao district was informed that the M/T Rehoboth was found aground off Barangay Cabuaya. Four personnel from the local PCG district office were sent to verify the report. Balilo said the PCG personnel returned to the ship to gather more information and monitor any oil spill in the area. The vessel was seized on Jan. 28 near Paraitan Lembeh Island, North Sulawesi, by Filipino-speaking pirates. The ship's captain, Ridwaan Balati, told investigators the pirates were armed with guns and bladed weapons.