Kabuntalan death toll rises to 16

COTABATO CITY — Rescuers fished out yesterday six more cadavers from last week’s sinking of a rivercraft in Maguindanao’s Kabuntalan town, bringing to 16 the total number of persons who perished in the tragedy.

Datu Kulot Dagloc, spokesman of Kabuntalan, said rescuers are still scouring the rivers and criss-crossing it in search of eight still missing passengers, some of them children.

The passengers of the 90-foot pumpboat, all Maguindanaoans, had just come from a kanduli, or thanksgiving celebration hosted in Barangay Montay, Kabuntalan by the mayor, and were on their way to Cotabato City when the rivercraft rammed a drifting log, causing it to split into two and its bow darting into the deep water.

The latest victims to be recovered from the waterway where the pumpboat sank were identified by their relatives. They were Wen Tikaya, siblings Noraisa and Kalimba Taha, Bai Nun Aud, Bai Sangki and Malungsang Gayak.

"We are hoping that there are no more casualties. The police are still investigating the incident. Because of shock, it’s only now that survivors have started sharing to investigators their testimonies on the circumstances of the tragedy," Dagloc said.

Sources from Kabuntalan said one constraint confusing the rescuers on how many passengers could still be missing is the absence of a passenger manifest which could be used in accounting for all the victims and survivors in the mishap.

"Operators and crew of pumpboats ferrying passengers from Cotabato City to Kabuntalan and vice versa do not have that mandatory practice of keeping a registry of the identities and number of their passengers for every trip," said a public school teacher who asked not be identified.

The source said the town council should pass a local ordinance imposing safety precautions that would govern the operating procedures for passenger pumpboats in the area.