Published : Thursday, January 19, 2012 00:00
Written by : Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter
The Manila Times
A French passenger, one of those rescued, revealed the heroic sacrifice of the Filipino workers four days after the maritime accident.
“Those who helped us were cooks and stewards, all Filipinos. They roped themselves together to help us get down on the lifeboats. We were able to get in at the last moment,” the grateful passenger said in a statement.
Costa Concordia had about 1,000 crew, 300 of them Filipinos.
Magsaysay Shipping Corp., the manning agency of the Filipino crew, was all praises for the workers after being informed of their “brave efforts.”
“We are proud of our crew,” the manning firm said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also lauded the Filipino crew for their “heroic act.”
“Filipinos are good at what they do. We are helpful and we go out of our way to extend a helping hand to anyone in need,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told The Manila Times.
“We are natural heroes,” he said.
About 100 Filipino crew of the luxury liner are set to arrive today.
Hernandez said that they would be arriving via a Cathay Pacific flight at 10 a.m. and via Thai Airways flight at 3 p.m.
“Both the Philippine Embassy in Rome and Magsaysay Shipping Lines have confirmed their arrival,” he said.
The Foreign Affairs department said that the ship’s owner had assured that it would pay full compensation to all the Filipino crew members and replace their lost belongings.
Three Filipino crew members were injured in the accident and are still hospitalized.
MV Costa Concordia was carrying 4,000 people when it hit a reef that made a 70- to 100-meter gash in its hull hours after it set off on Friday from Civitavecchia port near Rome.
The ship quickly listed, leaving it half-submerged in shallow waters near the island of Giglio off the west coast of Italy.
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