Squall kills 3 Taiwanese off Boracay

THE MOTORBOAT “Kevin 2” was battered by a squall while on an islandhopping tour on Wednesday afternoon, causing it to capsize off Barangay Manoc-Manoc in Boracay, leaving 3 tourists dead, according to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)Caticlan station in Malay, Aklan.

The PCG-Caticlan station yesterday said three Taiwanese tourists died in the accident.

Two women, Chang Hi Ling, 49, and Lai Yu Mei, 71, and 3-year-old girl Chen Szu Ching, were declared dead on arrival in a hospital in the island-resort.

Twenty-seven other Taiwanese tourists and a Filipino crew member of the vessel were rescued by PCG personnel and some local fishermen.

Twenty-one of the tourists are “in good condition and have returned to their hotel, the Fairways Blue Water Resort,” according to the report. They were earlier brought to the Don Ciriaco Tirol Memorial Hospital in Boracay for medical treatment.

The six other Taiwanese nationals and the crew member are still confined at the Baptist Hospital in Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay.

All the Taiwanese tourists were wearing life vests when the boat capsized, according to the PCG station in Caticlan.

An initial PCG investigation said, “At around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, while the Kevin 2, owned and operated by Allan Brillantes and skippered by Emeterio Niel, was island-hopping, it was battered by a squall near Manoc-Manoc, causing it to capsize.”

At about the same time, two local tourists drowned in a separate incident in Boracay.

“With the two incidents in one day, re- sulting in loss of lives, the PCG-Caticlan station was directed to coordinate with the Malay municipal government and other concerned groups to discuss the issues at hand with an end view of preventing the occurrence of similar incidents in the future,” the PCG headquarters in Manila said.

The PCG is trying to determine if the Kevin 2was overloaded when it left for the island-hopping tour.