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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Heroes in Bolinao

Carlos "Caloy" Caagusan, a fisherman, and Linda Caagusan, his wife, both of Bolinao, Philippines, rescued 52 Vietnamese refugees that had been stranded at sea for 37 days in 1988. They had started as a group of 111, but were not equipped on their small boat to make the trip to a safe port.

They faced not only the difficult conditions of the Pacific Ocean, but were even abandoned by a Naval ship that went as far as circling them, but not rescuing them.

The boat was only one of many, carrying more than 1,000,000 people from Vietnam to other countries betwen 1975 to 1995. The people are often referred to as "boat people," and their stories are intermixed with those of Filipino Americans and the rest of the world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello! :)