MANILA — The Department of Migrant Workers is investigating the shipowner of a tugboat struck by a missile near the Strait of Hormuz after a Filipino crew member went missing, DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said.

“Yung shipowner kasi ay hindi na-rehistro ‘yung ating tripulante dito sa talaan natin. So that’s one offense in itself,” Cacdac told Super Radyo dzBB.
(The shipowner didn’t register our crew here on our records. So that’s one offense in itself.)

The missing Filipino was reportedly the only Filipino onboard, while the rest of the crew were foreign nationals. Authorities have yet to locate him despite ongoing search and rescue operations.

“Merong mga nahanap doon sa tugboat na tinamaan ng missile pero hindi siya,” Cacdac added.
(There were people found on the tugboat that were hit by the missile, but not the Filipino seafarer.)

Following the attack, teams from the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration visited the seafarer’s family to provide support.

Cacdac said the immediate priority of the government remains the search and rescue operations and ensuring assistance for the family, while the probe into the shipowner continues.

In the past two days, 110 overseas Filipino workers have returned to the Philippines, and the government is arranging chartered flights for more than 300 OFWs seeking repatriation amid rising tensions in the Middle East.