Search shifts to open sea

MANILA, Philippines – Retrieval operations shifted to the open sea following reports that more than 50 bodies believed to be passengers of the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars were found floating off Claveria town in Masbate.

Romblon Coast Guard commander Commodore Cecil Chen said they are also verifying reports of five more bodies washed ashore in Oas, Albay. He said the five were all wearing life vests of the ill-fated vessel.

Bicol Region officials said nine bodies were fished out by fishermen in the coastal waters of Albay and Sorsogon.

Albay provincial police director Senior Superintendent Joel Baloro said the bodies of three women were retrieved by fishermen in Barangay Tapel in Oas town last Friday.

Baloro said the three bodies were still wearing life jackets when they were retrieved by the fishermen.

He said the fishermen could not find any documents that could identify the already decomposing bodies.

Six more were retrieved in the coastal waters in Barangay San Antonio in Pilar, Sorsogon, according to provincial police director Senior Superintendent Henry Rañola.

On the other hand, Chen said 10 bodies were retrieved Friday evening in the open sea and were taken to the depository vessel designated by Sulpicio Lines to its homeport in Cebu.

“With our diving sorties put on hold inside the sunken ferry, we have shifted our search and recovery operations of passengers from the sunken (vessel to) the high seas,” Chen said.

The ferry sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon with some 850 people aboard in a typhoon a week ago.

The 24,000-ton vessel is sitting upside down on a reef off Sibuyan, part of its hull jutting from the waters. Only 57 survivors have been found and it is believed that most of the bodies of the dead are trapped inside the hull.

Coast Guard and Navy divers, assisted by US Navy frogmen, were trying to retrieve dead bodies from the ship but the already slow-moving operation was suspended on Friday after it was discovered that the vessel was carrying a shipment of endosulfan, a toxic pesticide, which might leak into the water.

As of yesterday, it was quiet at the site of the sinking, in contrast to the hive of activity with rescue divers and their boats crisscrossing the waters.

Only a boat from the Bureau of Fisheries was seen taking water samples for testing.

San Fernando town Mayor Nanette Tansingco said she had barred fishermen from the area due to the pesticide threat.

“We will be doing a lot of studies in the area to make sure no one gets ill from eating fish,” she said.

Officials earlier said that they found no trace of the pesticide in the waters but are not taking chances and have subjected the divers to medical tests to make sure they did not ingest any poison.

The slow recovery of dead bodies has angered relatives who have trooped to the offices of Sulpicio Lines in Manila and Cebu City waiting for word of their loved ones.

Sulpicio Lines has had at least three other major accidents since 1987, when its Doña Paz vessel collided with an oil tanker, killing around 4,000 people in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.

The government suspended the company’s operations until further notice, while anti-corruption campaigners are planning a class action lawsuit.

A board of inquiry is also conducting hearings on the company’s possible liability.

A maritime official revealed that Sulpicio Lines is unwilling to see its vessel refloated because it would not be able to claim full damages from insurers.

The senior official said the submerged Princess of the Stars, which contains hundreds of dead bodies inside, could easily be refloated but the shipping line and authorities were stalling.

The sunken ferry has an intact hull with air pockets that could be used to float it once more and put it right side up, the official said.

However, the official who declined to be named said Sulpicio Lines and the Coast Guard “are not pursuing that tack because they are waiting apparently for the insurers to conduct their own investigation.”

“If they refloat the vessel, Sulpicio will not be able to claim damages for a total wreck,” the senior official said.

The maritime official said the pesticide complicated the operation but remarked that the Coast Guard should have had blueprints of the ship and other documents from Sulpicio Lines identifying its cargo before retrieval operations began.

Reports from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) indicated the 849 passengers of the ship included the 121 crewmembers and four sea marshals.

So far, 124 bodies were retrieved with 57 survivors. Of these fatalities, 98 remained unidentified, including two children. – With Cet Dematera, Ben Serrano