3 Pinoys die in boat sinking in Bahrain

Three Filipinos were among the fatalities of the ill-fated Al-Dana tourist boat that capsized Thursday night off the coast of Bahrain, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed yesterday. Two other Filipinos were reported missing.

An Associated Press report, citing officials in Manama in Bahrain, said the cruise boat was carrying 137 people and that at least 57 people drowned.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Gilberto Asuque said the Philippine embassy in Manama reported to the DFA that the bodies of the three Filipino fatalities were identified by Assistance-to-Nationals Officer Ramon Nerida through the passenger manifest and physical examination.

But the DFA withheld the names of the fatalities and the two missing crewmembers pending notification of their families in the country.

Asuque spoke to Nerida, who was sent to the embassy to the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Bahrain government to coordinate the identification of Filipino fatalities and survivors, yesterday at around 3:15 p.m.

"I spoke with Mr. Nerida and he informed me that the bodies of the fatalities were identified through the manifest and physical examination," Asuque told reporters.

Nerida confirmed that seven Filipino nationals including a female crewmember of the tourist boat were treated for minor injuries at the outpatient section of Salmaniyah Medical Complex and were declared out of danger.

The survivors were boat crewmember Hyacinth Dacay Perez, Abigail Silva, Pamela Bernardo, Lilia Hermoso, Bayani Hermoso, Lanette Salgado and Segunda Sienna.

Wire service reports said Bahrain Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Tarik al-Hassan told Al-Jazeera television that 67 people were rescued. However, the media director of the security department, Maj. Mohammed bin Deinah, said 70 people had been rescued. There was no immediate explanation of the discrepancy.

Coast Guard commander Youssef Al-Katem said 13 people were missing. "God willing, there will be survivors," he told a news conference in Manama.

It is possible that some people tried to swim ashore as the Al-Dana capsized less than a mile off the coast, and that might account for some of the missing, Al-Katem said.

Strong winds were hampering the rescue operation, bin Deinah said.

Al-Katem said the dead were from various nations: Bahrain, the Philippines, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, United States, Nepal, Pakistan, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Britain, India and Egypt.

Eleven of the dead have not been identified, Al-Katem said.

Al-Hassan said he could not give the reason for the capsizing. There might be several factors that contributed to the accident. An investigation was underway, he said.

Bahrain television reported the boat’s owners as saying the ship might have been overloaded.

The ship overturned while on an evening cruise that was to last several hours. State TV showed rescue workers walking on the brown hull of the small ship.

US helicopters and divers took part in the rescue operation launched by the coast guard. Bahrain, a tiny island nation on the western side of the Persian Gulf, is the home of the US 5th Fleet.

TV images showed rescue workers taking bodies wrapped in white sheets off a small dinghy. Men carried the bodies away in blankets or on stretchers, while boats with flashing lights moved in and out of port.

Scores of officials and relatives waited in the harbor watching the rescue operation. Some helped the rescue workers.

Television footage also showed survivors, appearing in shock and their hair still wet, squatting on the floor of a hospital. Many of them covered themselves with blankets. One male survivor was shown being treated for head cuts.

Survivors hugged each other. Some had blood streaming down their faces. Several wept uncontrollably as friends and relatives tried to calm them.

Some survivors needed assistance as they disembarked from a rescue boat that brought them to shore.

Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa visited survivors in hospital.

Health Minister Nada Haffadh told Bahrain television that a total of 24 people had been admitted to hospital.

Al-Katem, the coast guard chief, said there had been a dinner party on board Al-Dana before it sailed. He said the first word on the accident came from a survivor who alerted authorities from his mobile telephone saying the boat suddenly listed.

Khalil Mirza, a Bahraini, told the AP early Friday that he made that call.

One of only three Bahrainis invited to the dinner party, Mirza said the boat listed as it made a left turn soon after it left the harbor.

"People were scared in the water," he said. "They were fighting with each other and screaming." — With AP