Nine other crew members of the LCT Cebu Great Ocean remain missing. The coast guard and maritime police were searching for them off Surigao del Norte province, where the vessel ran aground without its crew, coast guard spokesman Commodore Armand Balilo said.The vessel, which had a crew of 20 and was loaded with nickel ore and about 2,000 litres of diesel fuel, had dropped anchor off Jabonga town in nearby Agusan del Norte.
“It was during this time when they declared `abandon ship' and jumped off,” a coast guard report said.The coast guard asked passing ships to be on the lookout for the missing crew. A strong typhoon has left at least three people dead, displaced more than 169,000 in eastern provinces and roughed up weather elsewhere in the archipelago in recent days although it did not reach inland.