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<\/p>\nA Filipino fisherman cast adrift in the high seas by a storm survived for nearly two months by drinking rainwater as he helplessly watched his uncle die beside him, the survivor\u2019s mother said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The PNG Post Courier newspaper, quoting local police, said a fishing vessel found Rolando Omongos, 21, adrift and without food on a boat on March 9.<\/p>\n
Weak and distressed, he was examined by doctors and held on the boat on the island of New Britain while arrangements are being made for his return home, it said, adding his ordeal lasted 56 days.<\/p>\n
A January storm separated him and his uncle Reniel Omongos from their main fishing vessel, leaving the two stranded on a tiny boat without fuel, food or fishing tools, said Rosalie Omongos, the mother of the survivor and sister of the deceased.<\/p>\n
\u201cRolando told me they lost their voices after one week and my brother later died. My son said he cried but his eyes were dry,\u201d she told media, speaking by phone from the Philippine port of General Santos.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me he kept his uncle\u2019s body on the boat in case a ship came to rescue them, but there was nothing and so he threw it into the water when it started to smell,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After the storm Rolando and his 31-year-old uncle relied on rain water they gathered using a one-gallon jug, the woman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey endured hunger and thirst and their skin was burnt by the sun because the boat did not have any roof,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said her son and her brother sailed off from General Santos on December 21 along with other fishermen aboard the bigger vessel.<\/p>\n
But when the fishing boat and crew returned to port after the storm without the two men, the family feared the worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not hear anything from them for three months. We thought they were both dead,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s employer later reported the rescue and the death to the Philippine coast guard on March 10, General Santos coast guard officer Emma Ruth Consuelo told .His mother said she spoke to her son by telephone on March 12, three days after his rescue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is difficult for us to accept my brother\u2019s death, but we are overjoyed to learn that my son is alive,\u201d said the 40-year-old woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Filipino fisherman cast adrift in the high seas by a storm survived for nearly two months by drinking rainwater as he helplessly watched his uncle die beside him, the survivor\u2019s mother said Saturday. The PNG Post Courier newspaper, quoting local police, said a fishing vessel found Rolando Omongos, 21, adrift and without food on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37325,37329,37327,37326,37330,37331,37328],"class_list":["post-71238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-sea-for-56-days-no-water-no-food","tag-adrift","tag-drinking-rainwater","tag-filipino-fisherman","tag-fishing-vessel","tag-philippine-port","tag-rolando-omongos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/fil.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}