'I think we chose right raft, we lost sight of others'

"Lord, will I die at sea? I asked that question while in the middle of a turbulent sea," Jose Mari Garbo, 23, told Manila Times when he and 27 other survivors were reunited with their loved ones at the Manila office of the Philippine National Red Cross.

"We tied ourselves with a rope that was held by someone in the raft. The wind blew really hard, and the waves were huge," said weather-beaten Garbo as he described how he and his companions were flayed by the angry typhoon and gigantic waves, in the middle of the sea for two days.

"I think we chose the right raft, thank God. We lost sight of all the other rafts when we were in the middle of the sea," Garbo said.

Other survivors happily identified Francisco Batula, 42, a cheerleader because he tirelessly nudged everyone to be happy especially at night, in the middle of a dark and turbulent sea. "When others were losing hope, I told them to stay positive and fight. I told them to keep thinking of their families," Batula said.

They were truly in grave danger as the current carried them northward, away from the ill-fated ship, and along the typhoon's angry path that crossed almost all of the Philippines in two days. "When we saw an island, the winds blew violently and the huge waves tossed us to the sides, causing our raft to overturn. We realised that we were on the shallow part of the sea, so we decided to swim," Batula said. "The men swam about 100 to 200 metres to the island. The three women who were with us clung to the capsized raft," Batula recalled. On land, nine of the survivors realised that they were all seafarers. "We came from the same school, the University of Cebu," Garbo told The Star.

Caring villagers gave clothes, food, and shelter, the survivors said. Batula's wife Cecille and two of their four children were shedding tears of joy as they embraced each other.

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