5 Filipinos missing after Chinese fishing vessel capsized in Indian Ocean

Up to 39 sailors are still missing after a Chinese fishing vessel “capsized” in the central Indian Ocean — five of them are Filipinos, according to a report by Agence France-Presse this Wednesday.

Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 turned upside down around 3 a.m. on Tuesday (Beijing time). A multinational search and rescue operation is now being launched to find the sailors.

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Those missing include the following:

  • Chinese: 17
  • Indonesian: 17
  • Filipino: 5

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered a search for the aforementioned, but nothing has been found so far.

“It is necessary to further strengthen the safety management of fishing vessels at sea and implement preventive measures to ensure the safety of maritime transportation,” said Premier Li Qiang while calling on those concerned to intensify oversight in the fishing sector.

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The overturned vessel is owned by Penglai Jinglu Fishery Co. It is one of the largest fishing companies of the Chinese government.

According to data from the North Pacific Fishing Commission, the vessel is authorized to fish for neon flying squid and Pacific saury. The ship is said to have left Cape Town on May 5th for Busan.

The vessel was last seen on May 10 southeast of Reunion, a small French island in the Indian Ocean.

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Penglai Jinglu Fishery Co has yet to make a statement regarding the incident.

First batch of Bivalent vaccines is coming

The first batch of delivery of the COVID-19 Bivalent vaccines will arrive in the country next week based on the promise of the donor country.

“These Bivalent vaccines, which is around 391,000 doses, will be arriving hopefully by next week already,” announced DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire.

Bivalent vaccines are ‘modified’ vaccines that target the emerging Omicron variants and subvariants, even the original type of the COVID virus.

The DOH is also in talks with the COVAX Facility, for the expected 2 million doses of Bivalent vaccine donated by member countries of the United Nations.

The delivery of vaccines from the COVAX Facility was delayed and suspended after the declaration of the state of calamity for COVID-19 in the country ended on December 31.

Vergeire argued that their negotiations with the manufacturers began in August 2022 and the reason was the non-extension of the state-of-calamity.

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