THE Philippine coast guard said today it would end a week-long search for six missing crew members of a fishing boat that sank in bad weather in the country’s eastern waters.

The Genesis 2 sank 337km east of the southern island of Mindanao on June 22. Fourteen crew members were rescued and the bodies of three others were recovered, said local coast guard official Lieutenant Junior Grade Elmar Mesina.

“There’s only a low possibility of locating more survivors,” said Mesina, the coast guard station chief in Davao Oriental province, when asked by AFP if the six were presumed dead.

The coast guard’s head office in Manila announced today it had recommended that its commander “terminate” the search.

It quoted the rescued crew members as saying the six men, including the captain, might have been trapped inside the vessel, which sank amid big waves in an area where the seafloor was about 1,500m deep.

A coast guard patrol vessel left the area on Wednesday after conducting a search, Mesina said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. – AFP, June 29, 2023.