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Friday, July 13, 2007
12 killed in ship sinking off Quezon
MANILA -- A Philippine ferry sank in shallow waters southeast of Manila early Thursday, killing at least 12 people, officials said.
The Army said at least 129 survivors had been accounted for hours after the m/v Blue Water Princess, an inter-island ferry carrying passengers and cargo, sank off San Francisco in Quezon province, 220 kilometers southeast of Manila.
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The initial chaos produced varying accounts on the number of casualties and passengers.
Army soldiers, who were the first to reach San Francisco, counted 126 survivors and eight dead in Pasangahan village, said Lieutenant Colonel Rhoderick Parayno, spokesman for the army's Southern Luzon Command.
An additional four dead and three survivors were located in the next town of San Andres, Parayno said. He identified two of those killed as Welcen Perlas and Lourdes Rizablanca, both from Lucena City.
The coast guard reported nine dead, 116 rescued and an undetermined number of people missing after the ship ran aground, said spokesman Lieutenant Senior Grade Armando Balilo.
Parayno said the roll-on/roll-off ship capsized 500 meters from the shore of Pagsangahan at around 6 a.m., an hour after it left the port of Dalahican in Lucena City, Quezon Province.
The ship, laying on one side, was submerged during high tide, but a portion of the vessel could be seen during low tide, Parayno told The Associated Press.
Office of Civil Defense (OCD) regional director Vicente Tomasar said they are still determining the cause of the accident.
The OCD-Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon) regional office listed four dead, 18 missing, and 50 survivors as of Thursday morning.
San Francisco mayor Ernani Tan quoted survivors and crewmen as saying 14 trucks tilted to one side of the vessel during rough waters spawned by strong monsoon winds.
"Upon hitting big waves in our area, the ship tilted to its side because all the vehicles moved to one side," Tan told dzMM radio. "The vehicles caused imbalance in the ship."
He said the local government provided food and free transportation as well as pocket money to survivors to enable them to reach their destinations. The kin of the dead were also being notified, he added.
The ferry had been on its way to the central island of Masbate from Lucena.
Leo Robledo, the coast guard operations chief in Lucena, said the ferry was authorized to carry 256 passengers. There were 28 passengers listed on the manifest, but the coast guard was checking apparent discrepancies in the numbers, he said.
A Philippine Navy ship, BRP Cebu, left Batangas for Quezon to help in rescue efforts and was expected to arrive in the area at 3 p.m. Thursday, said Navy spokesman Giovanni Carlo Bacordo. (AP/VR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (July 13, 2007 issue)
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