In Philippines the government is reportedly poised to provide loans for the rehabilitation of the country’s commercial fishing fleet, time for Congress and Marine officials to consider ways to improve their facilities. The improvement is necessary to avoid the same disaster as what happened to the Cadiz Commercial Fishing fleet during typhoon Frank.
It is good to study the deficiencies that led to the Princess of the Stars of Sulpicio Lines sinking in Sibuyan Sea that caused a lot of the fishing boats to sink or get beached. Senator Richard Gordon had pointed out that more than 1,000 fishermen had died in the Frank visit. In Cadiz alone, as of press time, 43 fishermen are confirmed dead and 89 still missing. There were some 35 fishing vessels of Cadiz Fishing Boat Operators had been lost to the typhoon.
Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante informed that the Task Force Mananagat of Cadiz City may finally end its search, rescue and retrieval operations today following a scheduled assessment meeting. According to the Maritime Industry Authority it is ready to conduct a probe on a claim by some survivors that several of the fishing boats were not equipped with survival equipment such as life vests or life boats. Therefore the government said that there is an urgent need to thoroughly examined and investigate the state of the country’s commercial fishing fleet.
