Divers searching for ferry

MANILA, Philippines - Coast Guard divers yesterday attempted to reach the wreck of a passenger boat that sank two days earlier as rescuers kept up their search for 24 people still listed as missing.

The frantic search for missing passengers forced divers to use deep-sea equipment to try to reach the wreck of the Catalyn B, a wooden-hulled vessel that sank on Thursday in Manila Bay off Cavite and now lies in 67 meters of water.

“They are now descending with the proper search equipment so they can locate the wreckage underneath and hopefully conduct the diving operations and find out the condition of the vessel,” Coast Guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said.

While the Coast Guard knows where the Catalyn B went down, Tamayo said they could not be certain of its exact location now because of the sea current.

Officials said they feared the missing passengers may be trapped in the ferry, but surveillance aircraft and rescue ships were still combing the waters of Manila Bay in search of survivors.

“We hope that we can turn up something,” Tamayo said, despite not having found any survivor for more than 48 hours.

Three people were confirmed killed when the Catalyn B, which was taking holidaymakers to their home village on a small island off the mouth of Manila Bay, smashed into the far larger Anatalia, a metal-hulled fishing boat, before dawn last Thursday.

The wooden passenger boat went down within minutes while the Anatalia has been impounded by authorities.

Forty-six survivors were fished out of the water on Thursday, along with bodies of the three people known to have drowned.

The Coast Guard had not attempted to reach the Catalyn B previously due to the depth of the wreck but was now able to try using special equipment.

However, officials warned that they would have to assess whether it was safe to enter the sunken vessel and that it may not be easy to determine if there are any bodies in the boat.

The state weather bureau said the waves in Manila Bay would be moderate to rough but the Coast Guard said the search and rescue operation would continue.

Ships and aircraft involved in the rescue effort have widened the scope of their search but have so far only found personal items such as slippers and babies’ nappies, another Coast Guard official said.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Commander Arman Balilio said search and rescue operations have widened since some of the survivors may have been carried out to the South China Sea.

“We have widened the search. The probability that there are bodies trapped in the M/V Catalyn B becomes stronger. There is also a strong current so there are also chances that some of the bodies are already in the South China Sea,” Balilio said.

The Coast Guard’s National Capital Region district commander Commodore Luis Tuason Jr. said the Philippine Navy is helping in the search and has widened the area to a 40-nautical mile radius, reaching the South China Sea.

“The direction of the water is to flow out to the South China Sea because of the northeasterly winds. We computed the speed of the current and the direction of the current. We also considered the rate of the drift to determine how far the bodies or the survivors may have reached,” Tuason said.

Balilio, however, stressed they have not lost hope that there would still be survivors. He said there had been previous incidents when victims were rescued by passing foreign vessels, which brought them to another country and it would only be reported to the proper authorities after a month, he said. 

It is also part of their standard operating procedure to conduct search and rescue operations for 10 days.

The cause of the accident was still unknown and there had been no reports of mechanical trouble or bad weather prior to the collision.

A formal inquiry was expected to begin within a few days.

Malacañang has called for an investigation of the incident with focus on the seaworthiness of the vessels involved as well as the capability of their crews.

Secretary to the Cabinet Silvestre Bello III said there should have been no reason for the two vessels to collide, considering that weather conditions were good and they were on the open sea.

President Arroyo has ordered the suspension of the operators of the two vessels while an investigation is being conducted by the Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority.

Bello said the operators of the vessels would be given ample opportunity to explain what really happened.

He also emphasized the need for all vessels to have the equipment needed to prevent the loss of lives in such incidents.

“The root cause of the accident should be determined and we have to examine the crew and the captain to find out why they collided,” Bello said.

“This should be the focus but in the meantime, it is only proper that their vessels are prevented from setting sail,” he added.

The country experiences frequent shipping accidents, usually involving poorly maintained, overloaded ferries, which are the backbone of travel between the archipelago’s islands.

The world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in 1987 when M/V Doña Paz laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people. - With Marvin Sy