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Robredo gives fishing boat crew in Recto Bank incident P50,000 each


Vice President Leni Robredo visited the 22 crew members of FB Gem-Vir 1, the fishing boat that was supposedly rammed and sank by a Chinese vessel in West Philippine Sea’s Recto Bank, and gave each of them P50,000 in cash assistance.

The money was sourced from the Office of the Vice President’s anti-poverty program Angat Buhay, according to Robredo’s office.

Angat Buhay is an initiative to assist communities in need across the country. Its resources come from the OVP and the private sector.

In a report by GMA News’ Marisol Abduraman on Balitanghali on Friday, Robredo went to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro to meet the crew of FB Gem-Vir 1 before going to the house of boat owner Felix dela Torre and its captain Junel Insigne.
Insigne’s wife, Lani, also cooked lumpia or spring rolls for the Vice President.

Asked for details of their meeting with Robredo, the fishermen said she asked about what happened in Recto Bank, how have they been since the incident and the status of their main source of income—which is fishing.

The fishermen also received a total of P45,000 each as well as boats, rice, scholarships for their children and livelihood opportunities from the Duterte administration on Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed the June 9, 2019 incident as a small “maritime accident” even though the fishermen claimed that the Chinese fishing boat Yuemaobinyu 42212 even went back to make sure that FB Gem-Vir 1 sank. The 22 Filipino fishermen said they were also abandoned and had to fend for themselves in the open sea for six hours.

Fortunately for the Filipinos, a Vietnamese fishing boat happened to be in the area and its crew assisted the Filipinos back to safety. —Llanesca Panti/VDS, GMA News

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