The answer as to who will man the incoming BFAR and Customs patrol boats?
4 men aboard drifting yacht rescued
PCG rescues Briton, Korean, and 2 Chinese
By YUL MALICSE
Four foreigners — a vessel skipper and his three crewmen – were rescued last Wednesday by a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) team from a yacht that drifted in the South China Sea.
The yacht’s engine conked out near the Cape of Bolinao in Pangasinan, while on its way to Subic, Zambales, from Hong Kong.
Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo D. Tamayo identified the rescued foreigners as Capt. David Richard Lewis, 47, Briton, resident of Hong Kong, and skipper of the yacht; Lai Chai Wah, 52, Chinese, engineer; Seim Syun Hyung, 36, Korean, crew member; and Chai Foo Yau, 50, also Chinese and crew member.
Tamayo said that at 11:51 p.m. last Tuesday, personnel of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) in Subic received a distress call from Lewis.
The message was relayed immediately to Coast Guard’s Subic station officer on duty, Petty Officer 2 Eugenio Macaraeg Jr., who, in turn, informed Coast Guard Northern Luzon district commander Capt. Athel L. Ybañez.
Ybañez, in turn, informed Admiral Tamayo and the Coast Guard Action Center command duty officer Cdr. Danilo Avila.
Tamayo immediately directed Ybañez and Lt. Lawrence Roque of the Subic PCG station to form a search and rescue (SAR) team and use
the PCG-manned BFAR vessel MCS-3005.Immediately, the vessel proceeded to an area – some 77 nautical miles West of Cape Bolinao, Pangasinan in the South China Sea where the team spotted the drifting yacht with four men aboard.
MCS-3005 skippered by LCdr. Genito Basilio with the rescue-medical group on board proceeded to the area at about 2 a.m. last Wednesday.
Upon reaching the area of distress at about 10 a.m., the rescue team picked up the four men and provided them medical services and food aboard MCS-3005.
Later, MCS-3005 towed the engine-troubled yacht to the port in San Fernando City, La Union.
MCS 3005 with the four foreigners aboard and the yacht in town arrived in San Fernando at about 4:30 a.m. yesterday.
They are "all in fine health condition," Lt. Eliezer Dalnay, executive officer of MCS 3005, said.
As of yesterday afternoon, the yacht was being repaired by marine mechanics of Kingsway Shipping Corp.
Admiral Tamayo coordinated with the British, Chinese, and Korean embassies in Manila in the efforts to give further assistance to the four men.
http://www.mb.com.ph/PROV20081024138872.html