Philippine rescuers have stepped up efforts to find 45 fishermen who went missing when Typhoon Conson struck last week, killing 111 people, a civil defence official said Friday, according to dpa. Benito Ramos, executive director of the Office of Civil Defence, said the search teams were encouraged when the coast guard reported on Thursday the rescue of three fishermen who had been adrift for six days. "We are not losing hope that the missing are still alive," he said. "They could have drifted to remote areas, like the three rescued yesterday." "The army battalions, coast guard and other teams are still out at sea conducting search operations," he said. "They were inspired by the rescued fishermen that the will to survive was still there." The coast guard said the three fishermen survived on seaweed and raw fish while they drifted more than 200 kilometres away from their original location aboard their damaged boat. Another fishing vessel spotted them on Monday and immediately brought them to hospital in Infanta town in Quezon province, 75 kilometres south of Manila. Typhoon Conson pummelled the northern and eastern Philippines on July 13, bringing heavy rains and strong winds that caused a massive power outage and damaged thousands of homes. Ramos said the death toll from Conson's onslaught has risen to 111, after bodies of other missing fishermen were found. The Office of Civil Defence said more than 60 vessels sank, were wrecked or ran aground when Conson triggered huge waves as high as 15 feet in some coastal areas. Forty of the ill-fated vessels were fishing boats that sailed before Conson hit the Philippines.
