Hopes dim for missing passengers in Masbate ferry mishap

Rescuers have given up hopes that the 10 missing passengers of the ill-fated passenger boat that capsized off Masbate last week are still alive.

This prompted the rescuers to shift their efforts to recovering their bodies, Raffy Alejandro, chief of the Office of Civil Defense in the Bicol region, said in a phone interview yesterday.

He said the 10 missing passengers of the ill-fated MB Don Dexter Cathlyn are presumed dead, based on applicable standards followed by disaster agencies.

“Based on experience, persons lost at sea are presumed dead if they are not found within three days, and it has been more than that,” he said.

Rescuers were unable to find the missing passengers on nearby islands of Dimasalang town, where the boat sank last Tuesday after encountering rough seas just five kilometers off the port.

At least 42 passengers were confirmed dead, while at least a hundred survivors were jointly rescued by the Coast Guard, police and the Army’s 9th Infantry Battalion.

“We will continue with the operations. Finding the bodies would depend on the buoyancy of the person, if the bodies would float,” he said.

Gennie Zuniga, owner of the ill-fated passenger boat, said they would shoulder all the expenses of the victims.

Zuniga faces an investigation by the Board of Marine Inquiry.

Last Saturday, the Coast Guard terminated its search and rescue operations in Iloilo after recovering the last two missing persons from the sunken M/B Roliv.

Fourteen people died in the Iloilo sea mishap.