Nine dead as Super Ferry sinks

[mabuhay]

by Mynardo Macaraig Mynardo Macaraig – Sun Sep 6, 10:58 am ET
MANILA (AFP) – Nine people were confirmed dead and dozens remained missing after a ferry carrying nearly 1,000 passengers sank in darkness off the southern Philippines on Sunday, officials said.

In the latest tragedy to hit the Philippines' notoriously dangerous maritime industry, survivors reported mass panic as the Superferry 9 began listing sharply well before dawn.

"They told us to stay calm but we could see no sign of rescue. Not for two hours," survivor Manuel Malicsi told radio station RMN.
The coast guard in Manila said in a statement that nine bodies had been brought in so far by rescue boats and newly-arrived fishing vessels.
However Zamboanga coast guard chief Commodore Rudy Isorena said the death toll might rise to 12 if reports of more fishing boats bringing in dead bodies proved accurate.

"We are waiting for these fishing boats. Once they come in, we can confirm the reports," Isorena said.

Civil defence executive officer Glen Rabonza said in Manila that 931 people had been confirmed rescued so far from the 964 passengers and crew on the ship's updated manifest.

However Isorena said it was too early to say exactly how many were still missing due to the possibility that the lists of survivors were inaccurate.
"We're still consolidating the names and trying to screen them. There might be double-entries," he said.

The search meanwhile continued into the night with government vessels and private boats continuing to scour the waters.

"We are searching all possible areas," coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said in a radio interview.

Tamayo offered hope for the relatives of those still missing, saying some may have drifted away in life rafts or been picked up by private boats that took part in the rescue.

At Zamboanga City, stunned survivors could be seen disembarking from the boats that rescued them, many of them still half-naked and bare-foot after leaping into the water.

The ferry issued a distress call around 3:30 am (1930 GMT Saturday), 11 kilometres (seven miles) off the coast of Zamboanga peninsula and some 19 hours into its journey from General Santos City.

Philippine Maritime administrator Elena Bautista warned that criminal charges would be filed if negligence were found to be to blame.

Commodore Isorena said the cause of the accident was not yet clear and the weather in the area had not been too bad.

However tropical storm Dujuan, off the Philippines' northeast coast, has heightened the seasonal southwest monsoon winds, bringing rough weather across the country, according to the weather bureau here.

Deadly ferry accidents are common in the Philippines, especially during the typhoon season.

Ferries form the backbone of mass transport in the archipelagic nation of 92 million people.

Aside from bad weather, poor maintenance, overcrowding of vessels and lax enforcement of regulations have also contributed to disasters.
The coastguard report said the Superferry 9, a steel-hulled vessel made in Japan in 1986, had a legal capacity of 1,120 passengers and crew.
Authorities and passengers said some people had jumped into the water in panic as the vessel began to tilt to one side, while others were able to get into life boats.

"The ship shifted suddenly and some people just panicked," Roger Sicharon, one of the passengers from the stricken vessel, earlier told DZMM radio by mobile phone as he waited to be transferred to another ship by life raft.

The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.

In June 2008, a huge ferry, "Princess of the Stars" capsized during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan, leaving almost 800 dead.

[mabuhay]

Search for Philippine ferry missing
Philippine officials cited reports that a hole in the hull may have caused the ferry to list [AFP]

Rescue workers in the Philippines say two people remain missing after a passenger ferry carrying more than 900 people capsized in the middle of the night in the south of the country.

Search operations continued throughout Sunday night, 24 hours after the Superferry 9 carrying 968 passengers turned on its side 15km off Zamboanga del Norte province.

Philippine navy ships and military aircraft scoured the waters while US troops providing counter-terrorism training to the Philippines military deployed a civilian helicopter and five boats with medical help.

Nine people are confirmed to have died, but officials said all but two of the remaining passengers had been rescued.

The ferry was midway into its journey between the southern port city of General Santos and Iloilo city in the central Philippines when it ran into problems early on Sunday morning.

According to Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the Philippine coast guard chief, the vessel's violent listing awoke frightened passengers and sent dozens jumping in the darkness into the water.

Panic

Reymark Belgira, a passenger, said many panicked as the huge ferry listed, with parents tossing children to people on life rafts below.

"I held on to the ferry for hours until day break. I couldn't jump into the water in the dark."

Gilbert Teodoro, the Philippines defence secretary, said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship.

Roger Cinciron, a passenger, said he felt the ferry tilting at about midnight and was assured by a crew member that all was well.

But two hours later he was awoken by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he told DZMM radio.

"People began to panic because the ship was really tilting," he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.

Cause uknown

Al Jazeera's Manila correspondent, Marga Ortigas, said investigators had yet to offer any initial reports on what might have caused the listing.

Hundreds of survivors were transferred to other ships in the area [AFP]
However she said accounts from some witnesses had led to speculation that some cargo on the ferry may have come loose, somehow puncturing the hull.

Jess Supan, vice-president of Aboitiz Transport System which owns the ferry, said the captain initially ordered everyone on board to abandon ship as a precautionary step.

The country's National Disaster Coordinating Council said there were reports that the 7,268-tonne vessel listed to the right because of a hole in the hull.

Sea disasters are common in the Philippine archipelago because of bad weather, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

[tollbros]

Condolences to the families of the dead.

But why does it seem that there is a ferry sinking every month?

[dodong]

That's why they call us a third world country.

Ferry companies constantly ignore rules and regulation to overload passengers, and cut corners in maintenance. Government keeps watching this to happen without doing anything solid to change the situation. The ferry ships in the Philippines are mostly second hand imported vessels which probably have a lot of mechanical problems and should go to scrap shipyard soon.

[ssjmarquez]

History repeats itself almost every year.....Sea tragedy only you can find in the Philippines..

SA BUHAY DI NA NATUTO
YARING MAMAYANG PILIPINO
SA PAGSAPIT NG SAKUNA
WALANG HANGGANG SISIHAN
AT PAG-IIMBISTIGA