LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Five days after the roll-on, roll-off M/V Our Lady of Carmel sank off Burias Island in Masbate, the decomposing, headless body of a man was found last Wednesday in the coastal waters of Barangay Catburawan in Ligao City, Albay, authorities said.
Commodore Aaron Reconquista, Coast Guard-Bicol commander, said the body also had no arms and feet and a pair of black underwear still clung to the torso.
Regional civil defense director Raffy Alejandro said they have asked the relatives of Dennis Manocan, one of two male passengers of Carmel still missing, to identify the body. The other missing, along with five female passengers, is a seven-year-old boy though.
Alejandro requested police to subject the body to a laboratory exam to determine when the man died.
Search and rescue teams have downgraded their operations to retrieval in nearby coastal villages as divers could not reach the sunken ferry believed up to 1,700 feet deep in the Agua Point in Burias Pass. – Cet Dematera, Celso Amo