SURIGAO CITY/ZAMBOANGA CITY, 27 November 2006 — Res-cuers yesterday began searching for at least 21 passengers of an outrigger that capsized off Hinatuan Island near the southern Philippine city of Surigao, officials said.
At least 66 passengers have been rescued since Saturday, but 14 others drowned from the tragedy when huge waves battered the boat, MV Leonida II, said Surigao City Mayor Alfonso Casurra.
“Our efforts are continuing and rescuers are still searching for the missing passengers,” he said yesterday.
He said among those missing was Mayor Arlene Navarro of Del Carmen town in Surigao del Norte province. Most of the passengers were high school pupils returning from a press briefing for student journalists, Casurra said.
Officials said the boat left Surigao City on Saturday afternoon and was heading for Siargao Island with a cargo of 300 bags of cement and rice.
There were speculations that the ferry was overloaded.
“The weather was quite fine and visibility clear but the waves in the area were big. Big waves slammed the boat and it leaned on its right side and eventually capsized,” the mayor said, quoting survivors.
“Based on what was told us, the waves snapped the outriggers, tilted the boat and sank it drowning the victims,” he told the Inquirer by phone.
Passengers, who tried to swim to safety, were later rescued by another pumpboat, who left the port shortly after MV Leonida II sailed off, he said.
One survivor told local radio that the boat’s captain lost control when large waves snapped one of the vessel’s outriggers.
People started jumping as water flooded the deck, he said.
Fishing boats rushed to the area and rescued some of the survivors.
Casurra said the manifest of the boat only listed 48 passengers, only slightly more than half of the actual number of passengers if the rescued, the dead and the missing were counted.
“Whether the 300 sacks of cement or the overloading of passengers caused the boat to sink are the subjects of the inquiry,” he said.
Blance Gobenchiong, a regional director of the Office Of Civil Defense, also said the weather was fine when the ferry left Surigao City.
“We were told by some of the survivors that they encountered big waves,” said Gobenchiong, who noted that the boat’s operator could not find a list of passengers.
Casurra yesterday also appealed on television for diving equipment.
“We have divers here, but we need more equipment. We can’t possible dive at the depth of 300 feet without safety gears and equipment,” he said.
Casurra said rescuers were having difficulty in the rescue efforts due to lack of facilities.
Casurra said divers had located the sunken boat, some 300 feet below the waters of Hinatuan Island.
Sea travel is a major mode of transport in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.
But accidents are frequent because many inter-island ferries are old or poorly maintained, while safety regulations are poorly implemented.
—With input from Inquirer News Service
