Another Pinoy Hero: Coast Guard Diver Dies While Retrieving Bodies Under The Sea

by Pinoylive on 10/01/10 at 8:47 am

MANILA, Philippines – A deep-sea diver of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) died Friday afternoon during his act of retrieving bodies from the sunken ferry MV Catalyn B off Limbones Island in Cavite province.

Commodore Luis Tuazon Jr., PCG-National Capital Region commander, said Petty Officer 3 Armand Bonifacio was declared dead on arrival at the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center at 3:40 p.m.

Tuazon said, Bonifacio collapsed after he and his colleague, a certain Petty Officer Cahilig, retrieved a woman’s body from the Catalyn B, which is sitting 221 feet under the waters off Limbones Island in Maragondon town.

He said that based on the doctors’ initial findings, the diver died after suffering from cardiac arrest. The PCG has asked the hospital to subject the diver’s body to an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.

The PCG has temporarily halted the retrieval operations for the trapped bodies inside the Catalyn B, which sank last December 24.

The death toll in the Catalyn B’s sinking has reached 11 after the retrieval of the woman’s body. Forty-four passengers survived the mishap while 16 more remained missing. — With a report from Dennis Datu, radio DZMM

Source: ABS-CBN – Saturday, January 9