Two crew of a water taxi died after the watercraft they were maneuvering figured a collision with a passenger vessel in the vicinity waters off Verde Island, Batangas, on Wednesday afternoon.
Reports from the Philippine Coast Guard disclosed that the collision between the passenger vessel Ocean Jet 6 and water taxi Hop & Go 1 transpired at 12:30 p.m., which resulted in the death of the captain and crew of Hop & Go 1.
PCG Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan immediately ordered an investigation regarding the collision.
Initial investigations showed that the Ocean Jet 6 was on its way to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro from Batangas while Hop & Go 1 was en route to Batangas from Puerto Galera when the maritime incident occurred.
According to Coast Guard Station Batangas commander CG Captain Jerome Jeciel, two other crew members are at the Coast Guard Sub-Station Puerto Galera, providing their sworn statements regarding the maritime incident to determine the cause of the collision.
Jeciel added that two of the four Chinese passengers were wounded, while the remaining two were in good physical condition, while the Swedish passenger decided to return home.
In total, Hop & Go 1 had four Filipino crew and five foreign passengers on board.
Meanwhile, all 115 passengers and approximately 90 crew of Ocean Jet 6 were safe and in good physical condition when they arrived at Calapan Port.
The wounded passengers received needed medical assistance, while the authorities are coordinating with the bereaved families of the two Filipino crew.