Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, National Police spokesman, said the ship, Chiang Da, was battered by strong waves that sank it off Barangay Punta, Aparri, at about 11 p.m.

The Cagayan Valley police command, Cruz said, identified the fatality as Jin Guang Biao, who drowned, and whose body was recovered on the waters off Barangay Punta.

Another Chinese seaman, identified as Tian Jin Liang, 31, native of Fu Zhou City, China, was rescued by members of the Aparri police, National Police Regional Maritime Group and the Coast Guard on the waters of the same barangay.

Cruz said the same police and Coast Guard personnel also rescued 16 other crewmen, including the four Filipinos on the waters off Barangay Linao, also in Aparri.

According to the survivors, their companion identified as Lin Lihe is still missing.

Cruz said search-and-rescue units are searching the waters off Aparri and its adjoining towns for the missing Chinese.

(Rene Acosta)