Post by ferryfast admin on Mar 20, 2005 23:24:49 GMT -5
Pirates release Filipino, sailors on Japanese boat
Posted 10:32am (Mla time) Mar 21, 2005
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net, Agence France-Presse
www.inq7.net/
(2nd UPDATE) THREE crewmen, including a Filipino engineer, on a pirated Japanese tugboat have been released after being held captive for a week, reports from Japan and the Philippines said.
Pirates released two Japanese seamen -- 56-year-old captain Nobuo Inoue and 50-year-old chief engineer Shunji Kuroda -- and Third Engineer Edgardo Pangliawan Sadang, a Filipino crewman, on the Japanese-registered tugboat M/T Idaten, boat owner Kondo Kaiji Co. said in an Agence France-Presse report from Tokyo.
Company president Kanji Kondo, who had earlier flown to Penang, confirmed the safety of the three who were now in Thailand by telephone, the company said.
In Manila, deputy administrator Ramon Tionloc Jr. of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
confirmed the release of the three seamen after they were kidnapped by pirates in Malacca Strait last March 14.
The tugboat was on its way from Indonesia's Batam Island to Myanmar.
"We are pleased to confirm, based on the report of the employer, that third engineer Edgardo Sadang, together with the Japanese master and chief engineer, was found early today on board a small fishing vessel drifting in the southern part of Thailand. The three marine officers have been rescued by the Thai maritime authorities," he told INQ7.net.
"Usual marine investigation will be conducted. Repatriation details will follow. The Department of Labor and Employment has requested assistance for Engineer Sadang," said Tionloc, concurrent chief of the POEA’s One-Stop Processing Center for Seafarers.
At the same time, Tionloc said five other Filipino seafarers left on board the tugboat would be repatriated Tuesday from Malaysia.
Posted 10:32am (Mla time) Mar 21, 2005
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net, Agence France-Presse
www.inq7.net/
(2nd UPDATE) THREE crewmen, including a Filipino engineer, on a pirated Japanese tugboat have been released after being held captive for a week, reports from Japan and the Philippines said.
Pirates released two Japanese seamen -- 56-year-old captain Nobuo Inoue and 50-year-old chief engineer Shunji Kuroda -- and Third Engineer Edgardo Pangliawan Sadang, a Filipino crewman, on the Japanese-registered tugboat M/T Idaten, boat owner Kondo Kaiji Co. said in an Agence France-Presse report from Tokyo.
Company president Kanji Kondo, who had earlier flown to Penang, confirmed the safety of the three who were now in Thailand by telephone, the company said.
In Manila, deputy administrator Ramon Tionloc Jr. of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
confirmed the release of the three seamen after they were kidnapped by pirates in Malacca Strait last March 14.
The tugboat was on its way from Indonesia's Batam Island to Myanmar.
"We are pleased to confirm, based on the report of the employer, that third engineer Edgardo Sadang, together with the Japanese master and chief engineer, was found early today on board a small fishing vessel drifting in the southern part of Thailand. The three marine officers have been rescued by the Thai maritime authorities," he told INQ7.net.
"Usual marine investigation will be conducted. Repatriation details will follow. The Department of Labor and Employment has requested assistance for Engineer Sadang," said Tionloc, concurrent chief of the POEA’s One-Stop Processing Center for Seafarers.
At the same time, Tionloc said five other Filipino seafarers left on board the tugboat would be repatriated Tuesday from Malaysia.