Interpol solves riddle with DNA: Captain of Stars among the dead

CEBU - The man who could have told the world what really happened when the Princess of the Stars sank in a storm in late June will be bringing all his secrets to the grave instead.

Radio and television reports yesterday said forensic experts finally identified the remains of a man as that of Captain Florencio Marimon, ending speculations that the skipper survived the tragedy that killed more than 700 and had been in hiding.

GMA7, quoting unnamed officials of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council, reported on its website that DNA samples submitted by the family of Marimon matched one of the remains found in the waters of Romblon where the largest passenger ferry in the Philippines at the time sank in stormy seas generated by typhoon Frank.

Sources close to the family of the captain also confirmed that his remains were at the Divine Mercy Chapel of the Sacred Heart Church in Cebu City and that the remains will be laid to rest today, at a still undisclosed location.

The same sources said relatives of the captain have been keeping vigil at the chapel but have avoided the media.

Radio reports said the Marimon family wanted to keep their grief private.

But while the air was rife with confirmation of the identification of Marimon’s remains from unofficial sources, no official word was released as of press time last night.

Dr. Renato Bautista, chief of the NBI Medico-Legal Division declined to issue a statement. “I would not confirm or deny. There has been an agreement with Ms. Rose Borromeo (spokesperson of the International Commission for Missing Persons) that all press releases will be coming from her and would be released every Thursday.”

Holganza, however, could not be found and would not answer calls to her cellphone.

Bautista has been working closely with ICMP and the Interpol in identifying the dead bodies found in Romblon.

ABS-CBN showed video footages of the mortuary where the remains of Morimon were reportedly kept in a coffin, as well as what appeared to be family members. Reporters were not allowed inside the mortuary.

The same report said a mortuary employee inadvertently let the cat out of the bag when he admitted there was a reservation for a space in the mortuary for the remains of a certain Florencio Morimon.

With too many questions left unanswered in relation to the tragedy, a lot of media attention was focused on the search for the missing Marimon. His family, however, requested that their privacy be respected.

Marimon was tagged by a six-man Board of Marine Inquiry as having been “negligent” in deciding to sail from Manila to Cebu despite weather bulletins saying typhoon Frank would be crossing its path.

The board said the captain failed to monitor the course of the ship in relation to the approach of the typhoon, and that when it was already too late to save the ship, he also failed to promptly give the order to abandon ship.

Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ill-starred Princess of the Stars, was found to have failed in implementing the Quality and Safety Management System and violated its certificate of public conveyance franchise.

The 300-ton vessel left Manila as “Frank” barreled across Bicol and the Visayas, eventually meeting it head-on near Romblon. The vessel sank in the morning of June 21.

The ship was carrying more than 800 passengers and crew at the time. Out of that number, only 32 survived the tragedy. And only 312 bodies were recovered so far.

Retrieval operations were halted when it was found the ship was carrying a deadly cargo of endosulfan. (with Edwin Ian Melecio/JST) (THE FREEMAN)