Three fishers fished out of Jagna waters

JAGNA - It was supposed to be one familiar run amid the low hugging clouds spawned by the active Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). What the three Bunga Mar fishermen did not know was that it packed enough sting to whip them out of their safe perches on board the boat they had on. With fishing as the main livelihood here, the not so strong waves that licked on the shores here was enough indication for the trio to try their luck out into the sea on board a pumpboat very early morning of October 4. That was the last time the village heard of the three. Acting on the missing persons report, civil defense deputized coordinator Eli Doria immediately went to Bunga Mar and the nearby coastal villages of Can-uba, Ipil and Cantagay to assess the damage as well. While in Bunga Mar, he gathered that Mario Colimbres, Christopher Colimbres and Solano Marino, all barangay residents may have been lost in the wake of the habagat.

The three, while in the middle of the sea realized they could not let go of their fishing gear that even steering their boat became a problem when waves slapped on them. Instead, they tightened their fishing gear and decided to head for land as the weather worsened to a squall. At about 5 a.m. and losing control of their pumpboat, it capsized and their ordeal of being dipped in the cold water while battered by seething sea washed over them. Swimming for almost half a day, they were lucky though, they were rescued by fishermen searching for them in six pumpboats. The rescuers were from their barangay responding the call of the relatives of the ill-fated fishermen. The trio lost only some tools of the boat, and apart from the traumatic and harrowing experience, they were relatively safe. With the incident, Doria advised everybody especially those in coastal areas to keep posted with the weather update especially on the typhoon months

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