4 dead, 23 missing in sea collision

MANILA, Philippines - At least four people died and 23 others were reported missing yesterday after two boats collided in the early morning darkness in Manila Bay during the busy Christmas rush, the latest disaster to hit the Philippines in a year marked by tragedy.

Rescuers are searching for the missing passengers of the wooden-hulled ferry M/V Catalyn B, which rammed into the starboard side of a steel-hulled fishing boat and sank off the coast of Cavite, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) officials said.

Commodore Cecil Chen, district commander of Coast Guard Southern Tagalog, said the Catalyn was sailing some 2.8 nautical miles northwest of Limbones Island when it rammed into F/V Anatalia at around 2:25 a.m. yesterday.

An emergency operation in the busy waterway swung into action, saving 46 people over the next five hours. But a subsequent Coast Guard report said dozens were still missing.

As of early last night, rescuers had recovered four bodies from Manila Bay, according to the Coast Guard Action Center.

PCG spokesman Lt. Commander Arman Balilo said a passing tanker, the Emilio Jacinto, turned over to the tugboat Habagat the body of 34-year-old Beverly Cabinillo at around 1:35 p.m.

Two other fatalities were identified as Relly Morales, 71, and a certain Welmar, believed to be 22 to 27 years old, who was identified through his cell phone.

“Accidents do happen and we never can tell when it will happen. Unfortunately it happened” a day before Christmas, said PCG commandant Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo.

“This is a small vessel with a single wooden hull. Water rushed in and the vessel sank not long after the collision,” Coast Guard Commodore Luis Tuason said over local radio, referring to the Catalyn owned by San Nicolas Shipping Lines.

The Catalyn had 14 crewmembers and 59 passengers when it left Pier 2 of North Harbor in Manila at 9 p.m. Wednesday bound for Tilik, Lubang Island in Occidental Mindoro, southeast of Manila.

The 13-meter long Catalyn had a capacity to carry 126 people and was not overloaded, he added.

“Some of those rescued are now aboard the Anatalia,” Balilo said.

All 22 crewmen of the 369-ton fishing boat Anatalia were safe, and their vessel was damaged but did not sink after the collision, said Melvin Viola of the Coast Guard’s operation center.

The Anatalia was on its way back to the port of Navotas in northern Manila after an extended fishing trip in the Turtle islands in the southern Philippines, Tuason said.

The cause of the collision at a time when millions of Filipinos were heading to their home provinces ahead of Christmas Eve was not clear. No weather disturbances were reported in the area.

The two vessels met at the mouth of Manila Bay at around 2:25 a.m. The Catalyn was on its way out of the bay while the Anatalia was entering the bay.

Commodore Tuazon said the vessels should have passed port-to-port or leftside-to-leftside, but the Catalyn hit the rear starboard or right side of the fishing vessel. 

The bow of the wooden-hulled passenger vessel sustained a large hole that caused it to sink in just 10 minutes. The fishing vessel, on the other hand, was only slightly damaged.

The mouth of the bay is considered a busy sealane and some vessels take extra precautions when passing through so that they would not run aground in the shallow area.

Holiday rush

Henry Tria, one of about 30 anxious relatives who rushed to the Coast Guard office, said five of his relatives were on board the Catalyn, including teenaged nephews and a seven-year-old niece who were on their way home to Mindoro.

“I told them that we should take a bigger ship but the tickets were sold out so they decided to go on this smaller ferry because they wanted to be home for Christmas,” he said earlier yesterday, before the survivors arrived at the Coast Guard office.

It was not clear how many of his relatives have been rescued, but at least one nephew’s name was on a Coast Guard list of rescued passengers, he added.

Two of the survivors, Kris Carisse Cajayon, 20, and Miranel, 18, are daughters of Arnel Cajayon who arrived at the PCG headquarters yesterday morning upon learning that some of the survivors from the sea mishap would be brought to the head office.

He said his daughters, who were studying in Manila, were on their way to Lubang to spend the Christmas holiday.

“Through God’s grace they were saved, but this Christmas is not happy because this is the first time something like this happened to us. We only used to watch such things on TV,” the 45-year-old father said in Filipino.

A Coast Guard statement said three of its vessels were taking part in the search for the missing, while eight other ships had diverted from their course and were en route to the area to join the rescue.

A Coast Guard plane was also dispatched to scan the waters for survivors, the statement said.          

The PCG would be forming a special board of marine inquiry (SBMI) headed by Commodore Tuazon to investigate the incident.

The 46 passengers and crew that arrived at the headquarters were immediately given medical treatment. The PCG also took the statements of the captain and crew of the vessel.

Balilo said the bodies of the three fatalities are on board the BRP Nueva Vizcaya which was expected to arrive at 6 p.m. yesterday.

San Nicolas Lines general manager Limuel Fabula, who went to the PCG late yesterday afternoon, said the company would give P200,000 insurance to the families of the deceased and pay for the hospitalization of the survivors.

Ferries form the backbone of mass transport in the archipelago nation of 92 million people.

Officials say bad weather, poor maintenance, overcrowding of vessels and lax enforcement of regulations have contributed to disasters, and water voyages in the busy Christmas period are particularly fraught with danger.

The world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.

In June 2008 another ferry tipped over during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan, leaving almost 800 dead.

A series of tragedies have struck the Philippines over recent months.

In September, the first of two powerful tropical storms battered the nation, claiming more than 1,000 lives and wreaking devastation across large swathes of the country.

In November, 57 people were slain in an election-linked massacre in a lawless region in the country’s south.

And more than 47,000 people are facing Christmas in evacuation camps and temporary accommodation around Mount Mayon, south of Manila, as the rumbling volcano threatens a violent eruption.       – With AP