For now, the San Andres fisherman who overcome fear and disability in a desperate swim to shore last January is not coming back to the sea that provided him with livelihood.
“Dai na ako malawod. Kung igwa akong ma-hanapbuhayan sa gilid, uya na sana ako. May trauma na pano ako,” Jomar Cielo de la Cruz, 40, told the Tribune in an interview at their home in barangay Belmonte two weeks after the Jan. 3, 2026 mishap that claimed the lives of his two companions.
“Siguro kung dai nangyari ito, pwede pa. Alog kaan, mapautro pa? Masakit na….,” he said, sharing that what happened always comes back to his thoughts.
Jomar, who is single, has disability on his feet which his family said was either caused by polio or excessive injections when he was just one year old.
He recalled that it was his third trip out to sea with Andy Almonte, 53, and Jomar’s uncle, Jose Cielo Sr., 57, both from Divino Rostro, departing from the shore at about 8 AM and arriving at their usual fishing ground off sitio Lipata, Caramoan, Camarines Sur at about two in the afternoon.
The sea was still calm when they left but it was already strong when they arrived, so they decided to anchor nearer to the shore.
“Nagbuntog muna kami duman sa harani ta dai kaya su dagat ta grabing ulan, hangin, dagat. Grabi…,” he stated.
The wind and sea were such that their motorized banca drifted and dragged the anchor.
“Dai na kami nakaisip magbirada ta duman na kami inabutan,” Jomar remembered, saying that by that time they had not caught any fish as they had yet to drop fishing lines.
By 5 AM that day, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) issued a Gale Warning over the eastern seaboards of Southern Luzon, including the northern and eastern coasts of Catanduanes, forecasting winds of 48 to 71 kilometers per hour and rough to very rough seas with wave heights of 3.1 to 5.5 meters.
“Nangaturog kami. Pagmata mi, pigbusian na kami,” Jomar stated, recalling the huge waves that broke over their frail vessel which had drifted near a coral reef.
There were two other fishing bancas nearby but the other fishermen could not hear their call for help over the wind and rain.
They tried to stay together when the boat capsized but one of his companions got separated from the sunken banca, using an ice box as flotation device.
He swam nearer and asked Almonte to come back to the banca but the latter told him to go ahead as he would just follow.
“Pinuntahan ko so tiyoon ko sa sakayan, tinalman ko na mag gilid na man, sa baybay,” he said but Cielo told him to go ahead so he decided to swim to shore.
He cast off all his clothes so he would not be burdened by the drag,
“Plus na huba ako, tanganing ang paglangoy ko daing sagabal. Pati mga bado ko sinalabod ko na nganing maligtas ako,” Jomar said, clarifying that his disability was not a hindrance to his will to survive.
“Habang galangoy ako, gadasal man ako. Sabi ko, Lord, sa paglangoy ko na ini, kung kuahon niyo na sana tabi ako, dai na akong maginibo, kung bubuhayon niyo pa ako…” he added, his stream of thought unfinished.
All the while he was calling out to his two companions, who he said still shouted back.
It took him about two hours to swim to safety and when he reached the beach at about 5 AM, he tried calling them through the rain and wind but there was no answer.
Jomar rested for a while on the shore and later saw fellow fishermen on board a motorized banca looking for them.
“At first, they did not see me but when they returned, they saw me flapping my hands and came to shore. They brought me to sitio Lipata,” he said.
“Lupaypay ako duman sa halong na igadagosan mi. Dai man ninda ako nakakahulon ta dai ako sa pag-iisip ko. Hanggang pagparibod ko uya ning banggi, dai pa ako nahimasmasan,” he shared.
Jomar told the Tribune that he had a similar experience before when rough seas broke the outrigger of their wooden banca but this was worse.
He confirmed that they had no life jackets nor brought a cellphone when they left that day, unaware of the looming bad weather that would later lead to the death of his two companions.
Two other lives lost in succeeding weeks
In the next weeks, two more islanders drowned at sea but in different circumstances.
The body of Napoleon Sicio Jr., 66, a resident of Caloocan City and native of Virac, was found at the shore of barangay Agnas, San Miguel Island in Tabaco City last Jan. 19.
Reports had said that he was among the island-bound passengers stranded at the port when tropical storm Ada passed by Catanduanes.
A day earlier, a local fisherman in the Sula Channel off Bacacay town spotted the decomposing body of a man floating on the water.
The corpse was later identified by relatives as one Gian Jay Tejada, who was last seen leaving his home and went missing days earlier in Bato, Catanduanes, with only his slippers left on the dike just beside the river.
Through proper coordination between the Bato police station and Tabaco City authorities, he was identified through the clothes remaining on the body.
News reports in the mainland stated that a third male body was found washed ashore in Panganiban, Gubat, Sorsogon, with local officials unable to determine who he was and where he may have come from.
As TS “Ada” skirted by Catanduanes, Marilima, Virac barangay chairman Allan Masagca called the Coast Guard Station Catanduanes on the reported sinking of a banca in the sea off the barangay in the afternoon of Jan. 17.
At 6 PM that night, a team of rescuers from the PCG boarded a speedboat of the PDRRMO for a retrieval operation but failed to locate the missing banca due to adverse weather conditions, returning to shore after just an hour.
There was no report of a missing banca or fisherman during the period.