2 Filipinos, 3 Indonesians Killed in Taiwan Bridge Collapse: Officials

Two Filipinos and three Indonesians were confirmed dead, while another Philippine man was missing after a bridge collapsed over a bay in eastern Taiwan, officials in Manila and Jakarta said Wednesday.

The Filipino fatalities, identified as Andree Abregana Serencio and Gorge Jagmis Impang, were aboard a fishing boat that was under the bridge when the span collapsed in Nanfang’ao, a Pacific coast fishing port in Yilan county, Philippine labor officials said in a statement. They said another worker, Romulo Escalicas Jr., remained missing after Tuesday’s disaster.

“The labor department extends its sympathies to the families of the Filipino workers who perished on board a fishing vessel crushed by a collapsed bridge,” the Department of Labor and Employment said.

“The search and retrieval operation is still on-going on the site of the accident,” it said, adding that five other Filipino workers were injured and brought to a hospital.

The Philippine labor office in Taiwan was facilitating the repatriation of the bodies of the two Filipinos. Manila’s diplomats in Taiwan were “on top of the situation” and assisting the victims’ families, the department said.

In Jakarta, authorities told reporters that the bridge’s collapse killed at least three Indonesians and injured four other crew members of a Taiwanese fishing boat.

Full story: BenarNews

Dennis Jay Santos and Tia Asmara
Davao, Philippines and Jakarta