A TOTAL of 93 passengers and 36 crew were put into safety after a roll-on roll-off/passenger vessel ran aground at approximately 100 meters off the nearest shoreline of Barangay Nasunugan in Banton, Romblon, midnight of 16 July 2023, Coast Guard authorities said.
The vessel left Lucena Port in Lucena City, Quezon Province bound for San Agustin Port in Tablas, Romblon when the incident transpired.
Initial information was received from Christian Vergara, a resident of Barangay Bagacay in Romblon, Romblon who informed that his cousin and friend were passengers onboard MV Maria Helena of Montenegro Shipping and was in distress.
Coast Guard Station in Romblon immediately made coordination with its rescue teams in San Agustin, Banton, Command Outpost Corcuera and personnel from the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Managament Office-Banton for rescue operations.
Around 2:12 am, PCG duty operation received a report from the supervisor of Montenegro that the vessel with 16 rolling cargoes including motorcycles onboard already ran aground.
At 3:06 am, CGS Romblon was informed that the vessel is disembarking passengers using the lifeboat. Local passenger boats at the said area and CGSS Banton personnel immediately rendered assistance in the disembarkation of all passengers who were later transferred to a covered court at said barangay.
MV Maria Helena ran aground and observed to be listing 10 degrees to portside due to imbalance of cargoes and sea water already present inside the vessel passing through the drainage of the vessel. As per Captain Sumocol, the vessel listed due to the explosion of one tire of one of their rolling cargoes onboard which broke the lashing.
Captain Sumocol stated that the vessel has approximately 21,000 liters of marine diesel oil (MDO) remaining onboard.
PCG’s Marine Environmental Protection Group in Romblon is on standby for possible oil spill response.
