3 OFW fatalities in Bahrain boat mishap named

April 01, 2006
Updated 03:31pm (Mla time)
Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday named the three fatalities in the Al-Dana boat mishap in Bahrain as Norman Belardo, Edwin Felipe Batacan, and Quennie Aboboto Dunca.

In a phone interview, DFA spokesman Gilberto Asuque said the Philippine embassy in Bahrain is now providing assistance to repatriate the remains of the three fatalities.

He said the office of DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. has already informed the next of kin of the three fatalities.

Asuque said Aboboto was earlier declared one of two missing Filipinos until his surviving compatriots identified his body among those of the three Filipinos who died. He said the search for the one other missing Filipino crewmember continues.

A party was being held on the floating restaurant when the boat capsized at around 9:45 p.m. local time (1845 GMT) about a mile south of the Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman bridge, which links the capital Manama with the smaller Al-Muharraq island.

Earlier, Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) officer Ramon Nerida identified the survivors as Lilia Hermoso, Bayani Hermoso, Lanette Salgado, Zegunda Siena, Hyacinth Dacay Perez, Abigail Silva, and Pamela Belardo.

Reports from Bahrain gave different figures on the fatalities. One said 48 people were killed, while Bahrain's information minister Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar said in an interview with CNN that he believed 25 Britons, 20 Filipinos, 10 Egyptian, 10 South Africans, and a number of Bahrainis were on board the boat.

The monarchy is an archipelago of 35 islands ruled by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa dynasty. It has a 650,000 population, of whom 450,000 are Bahrainis.

Bahrain, which has negligible oil reserves, is the leading banking center in the Gulf, and the main base of Islamic banking in the region.

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