Somali pirates freed 26 Filipino seamen last week, but the Philippines continues to bear the brunt of the piracy crisis as more than a hundred of its mariners remain hostage.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, 108 Filipino seafarers from seven different ships are still captive off the coast of the troubled African nation. As listed by inquirer.net, these vessels are: the M/T Captain Stefanos, seized September 21, with 17; M/T African Sanderling, October 15, with 21; M/T Stolt Strength, November 10, with 23; F/B Tianyu #8, November 14, with three; M/V Sirius Star, November 15, with 19; M/V Chemstar Venus, November 16, with 18; and M/V Delight, November 18, with seven.

The 26 Filipino seamen manning the Greek freighter M/V Centauri seized last September 17 were freed last week and are all in good condition, reported abs-cbnnews.com. They are expected to be back in Manila soon, as the DFA continues to work for their repatriation.

The M/V Centauri was set to unload 17,000 tons of bulk salt in a Kenyan port before it was hijacked off the Somalian coast last September, noted Reuters.

Prior to this release, two Filipinos aboard the M/T Stolt Valor were freed on November 16, noted philstar.com.

Photo: “1uhday-january6” by malinky, taken from Flickr.com. Licensed under Creative Commons license number BY-NC-ND-2.0-DEED.EN.

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