The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed on Thursday the release of MV Saldanha, with 19 Filipino seafarers on board, ending their two-month ordeal on April 25. The DFA said in a statement that Somali pirates seized the Marshall Island-flagged cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia last Feb. 22. It was carrying coal from Newcastle in Australia en route to Slovenia. It had a total of 22 crewmen, including one Ukrainian and one Indian. On the same day, Somali pirates captured MV Patriot, the vessel that has 15 Filipino seafarers on board. MV Patriot is owned by Germany's Patriot Schiffahrts GmbH, managed by Hamburg's Blumenthal JMK, and registered in Malta.