All-Syrian crew of cargo ship cleared, but questions raised re shipping agent, consignee

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 21 January) — The docking at a private port here of cargo vessel TRUE FAITH manned by 23 Syrian nationals on Friday, June 13, alarmed the security sector as four of the names were reportedly similar to terrorists on the government’s watch list but the Bureau of Immigrations and the National Bureau of Investigation said they have been cleared. Lawyer Arnold Rosales, regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) told MindaNews on Friday (Jan. 20) that the four crew members were cleared after results of the investigation showed they have different names and dates of birth and their fingerprints did not match those on the terror watch list. “Their names are common names back in their country, which is similar to our Juan Dela Cruz and other popular names in our country,” he said.