Navy, Coast Guard scramble to save 5 survivors of ferry sinking off Palawan

The Philippine Navy and Coast Guard were rushing to rescue five survivors from a ferry which sank three days ago amid a series of weather-related disasters which left some 300 people dead or missing, officials said.

On Tuesday a Coast Guard plane spotted the five people floating in the vicinity of Bangui island, close to the maritime border with Malaysia.

The group was clinging to the wooden debris of the sunken Piary, a wooden-hulled vessel that went down in stormy seas off the western island of Palawan on Sunday, coast guard Lieutenant Commander Alan Corpus said.

The five are believed to be some of the 75 crew and passengers of the Piary. So far only around 30 of those aboard have been rescued.

Corpus said the Islander plane was able to drop bottled water to the survivors and that six coast guard and naval vessels, assisted by three planes, were heading to the area to rescue them.

The Malaysian government had given its consent for the Philippine planes and boats to enter its territory as part of rescue operations, Corpus added.

Search and rescue operations are continuing to look for other survivors and casualties from the Piary sinking but no one else has been spotted.

The ferry sinking was just one tragedy in a series of disasters spawned by the heavy rains that hit the central and southern Philippines last week.

The civil defense office said 155 people were dead or missing in the central island of Leyte and the southern island of Mindanao after floods and landslides were triggered by the heavy rains.

However, the death toll could by much higher with local officials saying that as many as 105 were killed in one village in the small island of Panaon alone. Other villages have been isolated by heavy rains and storm damage, making an accurate number of fatalities difficult to establish.

Huge waves have prevented rescuers and supplies from getting to Panaon, officials said.

Condolences and aid pledges from abroad have poured in to the Philippines. The Chinese government on Wednesday, handed over a check for five million pesos (90,400 dollars) for the victims.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has promised to round up aid for the country. Japan and the United States also sent money, food, medicine and clothes to the devastated areas. — AFP, Jaime Laude