Ormoc: The death toll from a capsized Philippine ferry rose to 51 yesterday as rescuers tried to right the overturned vessel and found more bodies, a coast guard official said.
The motorised, wooden-hulled boat rolled on its side and overturned minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc City on last Thursday. Coast guard Captain Pedro Tinampay said there were 141survivors.
Passengers said the ferry appeared to turn sharply to the right and was hit by a large wave before it overturned after leaving port in Leyte province, south of the capital, Manila.
“We were given life vests but we were not able to wear them before the ferry sank,” said survivor Rhe-An Garciano.
Hundreds, of people die each year from ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands with a notoriously poor record for maritime safety. Overcrowding is common.
Anguished families wept over the bodies of dead relatives as the search for survivors from the Philippines’ latest ferry disaster ended. All 187 people on board the capsized Kim Nirvana were accounted for with 142 confirmed to have survived, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said.
The 33-tonne boat capsized in a calm sea several hundred metres (yards) from Ormoc city port on last Thursday while on a regular trip to neighbouring Camotes island.
Seven bodies were retrieved from the ship’s upended wooden hull yesterday, including that of a one-year-old boy.
His brother, Gilbert de la Cruz, 10, who survived the disaster, wailed over the dead infant’s remains, which had been placed in a black body bag.
“There’s no more hope for survivors,” Ciriaco Tolibao from the city’s disaster risk reduction and management office said.
As the search ended, authorities shifted to determining the cause of the latest in a string of deadly maritime tragedies in the sprawling archipelago of 100 million people.
“We will get to the bottom of this and make sure that this does not happen again,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya told reporters.
“Is it force majeure? Is it human error? We have to know all the facts before we talk about culpability.”
Survivors recounted how the vessel was backing out of port when it suddenly overturned, giving them no chance to put on life jackets.
Government investigators will question the vessel’s 14 crewmen, all of whom survived, he added.
The young survivor, de la Cruz, comforted by his equally distraught father, said he survived by clinging to empty water drums that kept him afloat until the coast guard rescued him.
The boy said he was standing near the deck when it tilted, allowing him to jump into the water.
But he was unable to warn his mother and two siblings. The father was not on board the boat.
“I’m very sad because I don’t know if they are still alive,” he said before his youngest brother’s remains were brought to shore. His mother and other younger brother also perished in the disaster and their bodies were among the seven retrieved yesterday.
Nicasia Degesica, a 57-year-old seamstress, waited at the port for news of her sister, Erlinda Rosales, while other devastated relatives checked hospitals and morgues for their loved ones.
“We’re losing hope that she is still alive, but if she’s dead at least we want to find her body,” Degesica said. The disaster-plagued Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly.
Reuters
