DOLE: Owner of missing fishing vessel with 13 Pinoys ends search ops

The Taiwanese owner of a fishing vessel with 13 Filipino crew members that went missing last February may have given up its search for them, the Department of Labor and Employment said Wednesday.

DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Hsiang Fu Chun Co., owner of fishing vessel "Hsiang Fu Chun" paid the three months' salaries of the crew and is now claiming insurance for them.

“Insurance regulations provide that the claims can be applied in three months,” a DOLE news release quoted Taipei-based Labor Attaché Cynthia Cruz as saying.

Families of the crew members could get the insurance benefit in as little as one month's time, the DOLE said.

Also, it said the salaries of the crew members have been paid until end-March.

Baldoz also assured the families of the 13 missing Filipino crew the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration is ready to provide them the benefits due them as OWWA members.

Citing Cruz's update, Baldoz said the ship owner decided to leave the search area in the Falklands Islands and leave the search to the Argentinean Search and Rescue Center.

“The Argentinian Navy has dispatched a warship and an ocean patrol vessel for the search,” Cruz said in her report.

Uruguay and other neighboring countries are helping in the search, Cruz added. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

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