Supercat hit motor banca?

CEBU, Philippines – The captain of the motorized banca that capsized last week in the waters off Barangay Ibo, Lapu-Lapu City after being allegedly hit by SuperCat St. Braquel has asked the Cebu Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority to fast-track their investigation.

Boat captain Leody Badajos submitted his marine protest before the Marina regional office, copy of which was made available to The FREEMAN.

Badajos claimed he is the captain of M/B Leody which, he said, is duly-registered at Marina office in Tacloban City as a cargo ship under the name of his mother, Luisa Badajos.

In his manifesto, Badajos said on August 28, 2014, they left Hingutanan in Bien Unido, Bohol on the way to the port of Cebu, carrying cargoes and escorts of the cargoes that included 80 sacks of seaweeds (fresh goso) valued at P1,000 per sack and 80 sacks of seaweeds (dried goso) valued at P2,000 per sack.

According to Bajados, the boat's crew members were Epil Cuyam, Tony Ceballos and a certain Jerome. They were also accompanied by Luisa Badajos, Lowen Gaviola with his nine-year-old son, Rosalie Cabardo and Gildo Cabardo.

He recounted that at about 5 p.m. on August 28, they were somewhere near the lighthouse in Barangay Ibo and had seen SuperCat St. Braquel approaching so he used a signal light to inform it of their presence. It was raining hard that time, he said.

But while he negotiated at the side of Mactan Channel, he said he gave way and awaited for SuperCat to pass knowing that its passage would create big waves.

Badajos then claimed SuperCat hit their motor banca and that they were not able to evade resulting in the capsizing of their boat. He and his team then rescued all passengers onboard.

"SuperCat realized that they hit our boat and instead of rescuing us, they threw their lifeboats to us and told us that Coast Guard personnel will be the ones to rescue us, but I immediately used our service boat to approach SuperCat and demanded that they rescue my passengers," Badajos said in a statement.

"It was then that SuperCat was constrained to rescue us. They let us board their vessel and ferried us to the port of Cebu upon the instruction of the Coast Guard for investigation of the incident," Badajos added.

No one was hurt during the incident but based on the manifesto of Badajos, the sunken boat was worth P1 million and its engine, a 6015 Mitsubishi, is already beyond recovery.

A check made by The FREEMAN found out that the management of SuperCat has filed a separate manifesto before the Marina and Cebu Coast Guard authorities, but its context was not available as of yesterday afternoon.