Jamaine Punzalan

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

Filipino seafarer Cocoy was off-duty and resting in his cabin when the captain&#x27;s voice boomed over the intercom of the cargo ship: &quot;We are under attack&quot;.The 38-year-old realized what sounded like a &quot;knock&quot; from inside the vessel was gunfire being exchanged by ship security and Houthi rebels swarming the ship in small boats.The July 6 assault on the Greek-owned Magic Seas broke a months-long lull in attacks by Yemen&#x27;s Houthi rebels on Red Sea shipping, which began after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.Crew members scrambled to reach the &quot;muster station&quot; at the centre of the ship, considered the safest place should a projectile strike the vessel.&quot;There was panic, but we knew we had to move. It&#x27;s like we were on autopilot,&quot; said Cocoy, who asked to be referred to by his nickname as he undergoes a debriefing.&quot;(The crew) were in a daze, but they were all rushing to do their assigned jobs for our safety protocol... maybe I looked dazed too,&quot; he told AFP.&quot;There were speedboats from the right, left and back of our ship,&quot; he said, relaying what the ship&#x27;s security team had told him.&quot;There was also a bigger boat with around 15 crew who were attempting to board our ship, but luckily, our armed guards were able to stop them.&quot;Of the 22 aboard the ship, 17 were Filipino .The group huddled inside the muster station for nearly five hours as the ship&#x27;s three armed Sri Lankan security guards tried to stave off the attack.&quot;I lost count of how many hits we took,&quot; he told AFP of Houthi projectiles.A Houthi spokesman would later claim that five ballistic and cruise missiles and three drones had been employed in the attack.One would breach the hull.&quot;The flooding had started so we decided to abandon the ship,&quot; Cocoy said. &quot;We deployed our lifeboat, all 22 of us, and left our main vessel.&quot;Filipino sailors make up as much as 30 percent of the world&#x27;s commercial shipping force. The nearly $7 billion they sent home in 2023 accounted for about a fifth of remittances sent to the archipelago nation.While a seafarer for more than 15 years, it was Cocoy&#x27;s first passage through the Red Sea, and what he called a case of &quot;really bad timing&quot;.&quot;During the gunfight, the faces of my wife and child flashed before my eyes. I kept thinking... will they survive without me?&quot; he said.&quot;I thought I was going to die.&quot;After abandoning ship, Cocoy and his shipmates spent three hours floating in the Red Sea before being picked up by a Panama-flagged container ship.&quot;They were the longest hours of my life,&quot; he said.The Magic Seas was no longer within their sight as it sank beneath the waves.<div><a href="http://Houthis publish video of purported exchange with &#x27;Magic Seas&#x27; captain before Filipino-manned vessel sinks">Houthis publish video of purported exchange with &#x27;Magic Seas&#x27; captain before Filipino-manned vessel sinks</a></div><div> </div><div>&#x27;WE WERE JUST LUCKY&#x27;</div><div> </div>A day after Cocoy&#x27;s ordeal, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/7/16/8-filipino-seafarers-from-mv-eternity-c-back-in-ph-13-more-unaccounted-for-0114">another vessel crewed largely by Filipino sailors, the Eternity C</a>, was attacked and sunk.Ten of those aboard were rescued. Another 15 are dead or missing.It was the deadliest such assault since three people were killed in a missile attack on another ship in March last year.On Wednesday night, eight Filipinos rescued from the Eternity C landed at Manila&#x27;s international airport.The Iran-backed Houthis said last week they had &quot;rescued&quot; an unspecified number of the Eternity C&#x27;s crew and taken them to a safe location, prompting charges of kidnapping by the US government.Maritime news journal Lloyd&#x27;s List reported six Filipino seafarers as &quot;believed taken hostage&quot;.The Philippine government has so far offered no information about the possibility of either hostages or negotiations.&quot;I feel terrified for the (missing) Eternity C crew,&quot; Cocoy told AFP.&quot;We were just lucky, because all of us survived... I pray that many of their crew can still be located alive.&quot;Cocoy, who is plagued by nightmares of the attack, said he is unsure if he will return to the sea.&quot;What happened to us was not normal,&quot; he said, urging shipowners to find routes that avoid the Red Sea.&quot;It&#x27;s something that no one should ever experience.&quot;<div><iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dtE7mTcr_w" title="Yemen&#x27;s Houthis publish video of Filipino-manned vessel sinking in the Red Sea | ABS CBN News" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

Filipino seafarer Cocoy was off-duty and resting in his cabin when the captain's voice boomed over the intercom of the cargo ship: "We are under attack".

Filipino seafarer Cocoy was off-duty and resting in his cabin when the captain's voice boomed over the intercom of the cargo ship: "We are under attack".

'I thought I was going to die': Filipino sailor recounts Houthi attack in Red Sea

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'I thought I was going to die': Filipino sailor recounts Houthi attack in Red Sea

Agence France-Presse,

Pam Castro

Published July 17, 2025 03:53 PM PHT

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Updated July 17, 2025 05:15 PM PHT

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