Two Navy vessels dock in India due to tropical cyclone

May 21, 2020

The Philippine Navy ship BRP Davao del Sur which was supposed to arrive on Saturday has returned to an Indian port because of Typhoon Amphan.

Lt. Commander Maria Christina Roxas, acting Philippine Navy public affairs directors, said  the ship  returned to Cochin last week to take shelter due of a tropical cyclone.

Following the fire onboard BRP Ramon Alcaraz last May 7, 2020, Davao del Sur was supposed to return to the Philippines but went to Cochin for repairs.

"Davao del Sur was supposed to continue her journey (back to the Philippines) but the super cyclone, Typhoon Amphan was there at the Arabic Bay, so Davao del Sur needs to take shelter so she returned to India," she said.

"Davao del Sur is now anchoring at Cochin, so our advice here is for her to return together with Ramon Alcaraz upon the completion of her repair," she added.

Davao del Sur and Ramon Alcaraz were initially deployed to repatriate overseas Filipino workers (OFW) affected by the conflict in Middle East early this year.

Because of the improvement of the security situation in Middle East the PN vessels were tasked to pick 200,000 pieces of face masks in India before they return to the country.

Aside from donated face masks the Philippine Navy vessels were to bring some Filipino tourists stranded in India because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Robina Asido/DMS