The last Filipino crew member of the M/V CMA CGM San Antonio to remain abroad arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 shortly after 10 p.m. on June 15, 2026, ending the repatriation of seafarers who survived an attack on their container ship in the Strait of Hormuz. He landed aboard Oman Air Flight WY 843, accompanied by a sibling who had stayed at his side throughout his recovery in Oman.
The seafarer was cleared to fly home only after being discharged from the hospital where he had been treated. His release marked the final stage of a recovery that kept him abroad longer than the six colleagues who returned to the country ahead of him.
A reception team met him on arrival, led by Assistant Secretary Julyn Ambito Fermin and made up of personnel from the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, along with officials from his licensed manning agency. His wife was also there to welcome him. The group arranged airport and financial assistance for the family, while a medical team from the Manila International Airport Authority, working with the New NAIA International Airport Corp., stood by to provide on-site care.
The DMW said the repatriation followed instructions from President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for the government to secure the safe return of the crew. The effort drew on the vessel’s shipowner, the Migrant Workers Office, the Philippine Embassy in Oman, Omani authorities and the manning agency in the Philippines.
Like the crew members who preceded him, the returning seafarer will undergo a medical examination and psychosocial counseling organized by his agency before he travels home to his province.
The M/V CMA CGM San Antonio, a Maltese-flagged container ship operated by the French group CMA CGM, was struck while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on May 5, 2026, in what Philippine officials described as an Iranian drone attack. According to Rappler, the strike came during a night passage near Oman and injured eight crew members, with seven of them Filipinos. DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said at the time that three of the injured were in serious condition and confined to intensive care, while four sustained relatively minor injuries.
