ILOILO CITY – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has clarified the death toll in the sea tragedy along the body of water separating Iloilo City and island province of Guimaras has reached 28 and not 31 as earlier reported.
“We have rectified the information. It’s not 31,” said Commodore Allan Dela Vega, PCG commander for Western Visayas region.
Majority of national media outlets reported 31 people dead as of Sunday, but the 28th body was only recovered Monday morning.
“But it’s normal. There were bodies unaccounted and unidentified for,” Dela Vega said Monday.
Dela Vega explained that he reconciled the data with the incident command center, which has consolidated data from PCG, the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Offices (DRRMOs) of both Iloilo City and Guimaras province, and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
PCG officers were mum right after passenger boat Jenny Vince capsized 3:30 p.m. of Saturday along the Iloilo Strait.
The incident occurred more than two hours after passenger boats Chi-Chi and Keziah 2 also capsized and there were ongoing search and rescue operations.
When the incident command center was created Saturday afternoon, it was agreed upon that Iloilo City DRRMO chief Donna Magno will be the official spokesperson to release coordinated data.
“We now agreed to have common data. We will be more careful and have our data signed before releasing it to the public,” Dela Vega attended. (Tara Yap)
