MANILA, Philippines - Twenty-five years have passed since the sinking of the ill-fated ship Doña Paz, a tragedy which claimed an estimated 4,000 lives.
No one knows for sure how many people really died. The Doña Paz was officially supposed to carry only 1,518 passengers. But survivors say thousands more were crowded on board that night, rushing home for the holidays.
How can a passenger ferry sailing in calm water result in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history?
GMA News TV airs Asia’s Titanic, a National Geographic documentary that investigates the tragedy, tomorrow night at 10:30.
Five days before Christmas in 1987, Doña Paz sailed into infamy, most of its passengers burned alive in an inferno at sea. The ill-fated ship, sailing on a 24-hour voyage from Leyte to Manila, collided with oil tanker M/T Vector off the coast of Mindoro.
Through dramatic first-hand accounts of survivors and rescuers, actual transcripts from the Philippine congressional inquiry into the tragedy, archival footage and photos and a re-enactment of the collision, Asia’s Titanic directed by Yam Laranas, dissects how the tragedy unfolded.