Sabotage ruled out in ship’s explosion

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ruled out sabotage in last Sunday’s explosion on a passenger ferry in Ormoc City that resulted to the death of two and injuries to four other crewmen of the ill-fated vessel.

PCG Commandant Ruben Lista in a telephone interview, said that the explosion inside the engine room of M/V Tacloban Princess of Sulpicio Shipping Lines was purely an accident.

"The explosion was internal in nature. It was an accident. The crewmen have just completed the repair of the auxiliary engine’s air tank and was about to test run it. Nang kanilang paandarin ang makina saka ito sumabog. (When they started the motor it exploded)," Lista said. But just the same, he said a Summary Board of Marine Inquiry have been formed to conduct a deeper probe on the incident.

"The board has been created to look into the full angle of this case and to explore remedies and recommendations to avoid the repeat of such accident in the future," he added.

"Our initial investigation showed that the vessel was already at Ormoc pier and with its crewmen repairing the air tank of its auxiliary engine when the explosion occurred," Lista said.

Lista said that the management of the Sulpicio Lines had already requested the Coast Guard to conduct an investigation into the incident.

Reports reaching the PCG headquarters showed that the passenger ferry was already docked at the Ormoc pier and all its passengers have already disembarked, when the explosion happened inside its engine room about 11:10 a.m. the other day.

The powerful explosion blasted to death the vessel’s assistant marine engineer, Benjie Alcala and oiler Lope Tumanda.

Four other crewmen suffered third degree burns because of the explosion which also triggered a 25-minute fire on the ill-fated ship.