The Philippine Sports Commission has launched a full investigation on the death of seven paddlers after their boat capsized in the waters off Boracay Island last week.
“The mandate of the PSC is amateur sports, so we will exercise our authority to get to the bottom of this,” said PSC Chair Butch Ramirez.
Out of 21 paddlers from the Boracay Dragon Force team, Mark Vincent Navarrete, Comar Acob, Maricel Tan, Johann Tan, Richel Montuya, Antonette Supranes and John Vincent Natividad did not survive the ordeal and were declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
PSC executive director Merlita Ibay and the PSC legal office will spearhead the fact-finding group tasked to look into the tragedy and come up with results from their investigation as early as this week to avoid a repeat of such incidents in the future.
According to a report from the public information unit of the municipality of Malay, Aklan, the 21 paddlers wore no life vests when a surge of big waves hit their boat.
The rough waves filled the boat with water, causing it to capsize approximately 300 meters off the shore of Barangay Manoc-Manoc.
Continuous strong waves and the current made the boat unstable, displacing the paddlers.
“This should never happen again,” said Ramirez, who sent National Sports Association affairs chief Annie Ruiz to visit the hospitalized athletes and the families of the deceased.
The PSC extended financial support to the families of the fatalities.