MANILA, 14 July 2006 — Hopes that the missing passengers of the sunken inter-island ferry MV Blue Water Princess could still be alive were dashed yesterday after divers reported seeing many corpses trapped inside the vessel, officials said.
Strong waves, however, prevented divers from retrieving the corpses, said Leo Robledo, coast guard operations chief in the province.
Rescuers yesterday found three more bodies, including that of a child, that were washed ashore along the coast of Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province, raising the death toll to 15.
The ferry tilted and sank about 500 meters from San Francisco town in the peninsula amid choppy waters caused y the passing of supertyphoon Man-hi early Thursday.
The military counted at least 129 survivors in San Francisco and nearby San Andres town, 220 kilometers (140 miles) southeast of Manila, said regional army spokesman Lt. Col. Rhoderick Parayno.
The number of people on board the vessel when it sank was not clear because the toal number of passengers and crew members in the manifest did not even exceed 100, officials said.
Henry Buzar, a disaster relief coordinator in Quezon province, told Radio DZBB that the passenger manifest did not include all the people inside trucks, buses and other vehicles on board the ferry.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the coast guard and the Department of Transportation and Communication to investigate the incident as she expressed her sympathies for the families of those who died.
The coast guard said it will convene a special board of inquiry.
Arroyo also urged authorities to remind sea vessels to heed weather forecasts and assure passenger safety and welfare at all times.
San Francisco Mayor Ernani Tan quoted survivors and crew as saying 14 trucks tilted to one side of the vessel in rough waters spawned by strong monsoon winds.
“The vehicles caused imbalance in the ship,” he said. Two vessels have been placed on standby to deal with a possible oil spill from the ferry, coast guard chief Adm. Damian Carlos said.
Ferries, which are the backbone of travel in this archipelago nation, often have people boarding them at the last minute without being listed on the manifest. (With input by Agencies)
