Philippine ferry death toll climbs to 38, as oil leaks

Philippine divers hauled bodies out of rough seas on Sunday in the grisly aftermath of a ferry disaster that claimed at least 38 lives, as oil leaked from the submerged vessel.

Rescue efforts were focused throughout Sunday on more than 80 people missing and believed trapped inside the St Thomas Aquinas ferry that sank on Friday night near the central city of Cebu after colliding with a cargo ship.

More than 800 passengers and crew were aboard the ferry, which sank within 10 minutes of impact.

"It is possible that there are air pockets in its compartments and there might be survivors," Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Gregory Fabic told AFP, adding people could survive for 72 hours in such conditions.

"There is still hope that there might just be survivors there."

However by nightfall the navy and coastguard divers had not been able to reach the interior of the vessel, with strong currents and choppy waves hampering efforts, and only dead bodies from its outer areas had been recovered.

The official death toll rose from 31 in the morning to 38, and authorities cautioned that the odds of finding any more survivors were low.

"We are still hopeful, although you have to accept the reality that their chances of survival are very slim," Neil Sanchez, head of the regional disaster management office in Cebu, told reporters.

The number of people officially listed as missing was sharply reduced on Sunday to 82 from 170, but this was due to tallying issues rather than any fresh rescues.

The number of missing was cut after those involved in the search reconciled their figures, said Sanchez.

However authorities were unable to say how many people may be in the sunken ship, which is at a depth of about 30 metres (98 feet), giving some hope the number of missing could be reduced further.

Survivors and people with relatives still missing waited anxiously at the Cebu ferry passenger terminal and a local hospital for news of loved ones.

"I cannot explain what I am feeling. It is painful, but I continue to hope," said Nanette Condicion, 44, who survived by jumping on to the cargo ship but lost her elder sister and 71-year-old father in the chaos.

"I am staying here to wait for them, dead or alive. I am not going to leave unless I see both of them."

Meanwhile leaking oil from the vessel added a new front to the disaster response, spreading for more than 5km and into coastal villages, fishing grounds and mangroves.

"You can see it coming out of the sunken vessel. It is bunker fuel and it is black," Cebu coastguard commander Weniel Azcuna told AFP.

At one area about 5km from the disaster site, mangroves were coated in black oil at low tide, and birds waded amid shallow water covered in a rainbow sheen, according to an AFP reporter.

Authorities said the ferry was carrying 120,000 litres (32,000 gallons) of bunker fuel when it sank. Divers were unable to reach the source of the leak to try and plug it.

The ships collided as they were travelling in opposite directions at a well-known choke point near the mouth of Cebu's port.

The steel bow of the cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, caved in on impact but it sailed safely to dock.

Officials said they suspected human error was to blame for one of the ships going into a wrong lane, although investigations had only just begun.

Ferries are one of the main forms of transport across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, particularly for the millions too poor to fly.

But sea accidents are common, with poor safety standards and lax enforcement typically to blame.

The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred near the capital Manila in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,300 people.

Previous  report

Divers have plucked two more bodies from a sunken passenger ferry and are scrambling to plug an oil leak in the wreckage after a collision with a cargo ship.

The accident near the central Philippine port of Cebu that has left 34 dead and more than 80 others missing.

Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III said Sunday that 751 passengers and crewmen of the MV Thomas Aquinas have been rescued after the inter-island ferry figured in a collision late Friday with the MV Sulpicio Express Siete then rapidly sank off the Cebu pier.

Stunned passengers were forced to jump in the dark into the water after the captain ordered the doomed ferry abandoned.

Earlier report:

The number of people missing from a Philippine ferry disaster dropped from 170 to 85 Sunday, authorities said, with the lower figure due to tallying issues rather than new rescues.

The Philippine Coast Guard said that, as of 10:00 am (0200 GMT), the death toll from the sunken St Thomas Aquinas ferry stood at 34, with 85 others missing, the coastguard said.

The number of missing was cut from 170 after all those involved in the search reconciled their figures, and not because of late rescues, said Neil Sanchez, regional disaster management office head in the central city of Cebu.

More than 700 people had been rescued, according to the coastguard.

The St Thomas Aquinas was passing through a narrow strait in the port of Cebu in the when it collided with a cargo ship on Friday night.
The Thomas Aquinas was carrying more than 800 people, while the Sulpicio Express 7, which did not sink, had 36 crew members.

Philippine rescuers struggled in rough seas Sunday as they resumed a bleak search for 170 people missing in the country's latest ferry disaster, but insisted miracle survivor stories were possible.

Thirty-two people have been confirmed dead after the ferry, carrying 830 passengers and crew, sank almost instantly on Friday night following a collision with a cargo vessel outside a major port in the central city of Cebu.

Stormy weather forced an early suspension of search and rescue operations with a few hours of daylight remaining on Saturday, and similar conditions hampered the effort when rescuers returned to the waters at dawn on Sunday morning.

Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Gregory Fabic said the weather had again prevented divers from reaching the sunken vessel, where many of those missing were believed trapped, but rescuers would make every effort to get there.

"It is possible that there are air pockets in its compartments and there might the survivors," Fabic told AFP, adding people could survive for 72 hours in such conditions.

"There is still hope that there might just be survivors there."

Meanwhile, navy vessels, coastguard personnel on rubber boats and volunteer fishermen scoured about three square kilometres (1.8 square miles) of water outside the port for anyone who may still be floating.

Nevertheless, authorities cautioned that the odds of finding any more survivors were low.

"We are still hopeful, although you have to accept the reality that their chances of survival are very slim," the head of the provincial disaster management office, Neil Sanchez, told reporters from rescue command centre at the port.

The ships collided as they were going in opposite directions at a well-down choke point near the mouth of Cebu's port.

Authorities said the St Thomas Aquinas ferry sank within 10 minutes of the crash.

The cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, which had 36 crew members on board, did not sink. Its steel bow had caved in on impact but it sailed safely to dock.

One survivor, Lolita Gonzaga, 57, recalled the terror of falling from the top deck of the ship to the bottom level when the collision occurred, then the horror of escaping the black waters with her 62-year-old husband.

"When we were rescued we had to share the rubber boat with a dead woman. She was just lying there," Gonzaga told AFP on Saturday from a hospital bed in Cebu where she was nursing spinal injuries.

Government regulator the Maritime Industry Authority said both vessels had passed safety checks and were sea worthy, indicating human error was to blame for one of the ships going into a wrong lane.

Ferries are one of the main forms of transport across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, particularly for the millions of people too poor to fly.

But sea accidents are common, with poor safety standards and lax enforcement typically to blame.

The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred near the capital Manila in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,300 people.

In 2008, a huge ferry capsised during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan, leaving almost 800 dead.

Earlier report:

Philippine rescuers battled stormy weather Saturday in the search for 170 people missing after a crowded ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank almost instantly, with 31 confirmed dead.

The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 831 passengers and crew when the accident occurred on Friday night in a dangerous choke point near the port of Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city, authorities said.

Coastguard and military vessels, as well as local fishermen in their own small boats frantically worked through the night and Saturday to haul more 629 people out of the water alive, Transport Secretary Joseph Abaya told reporters.

But by Saturday afternoon, 171 people were still unaccounted for and 31 bodies had been retrieved, Abaya reported shortly after navy divers suspended efforts to reach the submerged hull because of bad weather.

Earlier report:

The captain of the ferry MV Thomas Aquinas, which was approaching the port late Friday, ordered the ship abandoned when it began listing and then sank just minutes after collision with the MV Sulpicio Express, coast guard deputy chief Rear Adm. Luis Tuason said.

The ferry carried 752 passengers, including children and infants, and 118 crew. The number is higher than the 841 earlier reported by ferry owner 2Go, Tuason said.

He said that 213 are still missing, some of them possibly trapped inside the vessel that sank in waters about 33 meters (100 feet) deep off Talisay city in Cebu province, about 570 kilometers (350 miles) south of Manila.

Twenty-eight people, including children, were confirmed dead and 629 passengers and crew had been rescued.

Tuason said that navy divers recovered at least four more bodies from the underwater wreck early Saturday. Reporters at the site, about two kilometers (1.25 miles) from shore, saw the bodies coated with fuel and oil that spilled from the ferry.

"There could be more bodies there, but there were ropes inside that our divers could get entangled in," Tuason said.

He said that the coast guard will send more divers with deep-water equipment to help retrieve bodies.

In a statement, 2Go said the ferry "was reportedly hit" by the cargo vessel "resulting in major damage that led to its sinking." An investigation will begin after the rescue operation, the coast guard said.

Danny Palmero, a former fisherman, said he was with friends who responded to the ferry's distress call and rescued seven people on their motorized outrigger canoe.

"I saw many flares being shot," he said by telephone. "As a former nautical student, I knew it was a distress signal."

He said a fisherman arrived at the shore with three survivors and told the crowd gathered that there was a collision and that there were many people in the water.

"We just picked up the survivors and left the dead in the water," he said. "I heard screams and crying."

The crewmen of the cargo ship were throwing life jackets to the people who jumped into the dark waters, he said.

He said there is a large gash at the front of the cargo vessel. "It now has a mouth," he said, describing the ship's bow.

Hundreds of passengers jumped into the ocean as the ship started to sink, according to survivors. Many of the passengers were asleep and others struggled to find their way in the dark.

Rolando Manliguis was watching a live band when "suddenly I heard what sounded like a blast. ... The singer was thrown in front of me." He said he rushed to wake up his wife and their two children but the water was rising fast.

"When the boat was on its side, the water level was here," he said, pointing to his neck. "I thought about my child.  It's a good thing that someone helped us immediately."

He said they roped down the side of the ferry into the sea and were put on a life raft.

Jerwin Agudong said he and other passengers jumped overboard in front of the cargo vessel after the ferry began taking on water and the crew distributed life jackets.

He told radio station DZBB that some people were trapped and he saw bodies in the water.

"It seems some were not able to get out. I pity the children. We saw dead bodies on the side, and some being rescued," he said.

He said the ferry was entering the pier when the cargo vessel, which was on the way out, suddenly collided with it.

The 138-meter (455-foot) -long ferry sank in about 30 minutes, he said.

The youngest among those rescued was an 11-month baby, news reports said.

The ferry came from Nasipit in Agusan del Sur province in the southern Philippines on a daylong journey, Agudong said.

Accidents at sea are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

In 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

In 2008, the ferry MV Princess of the Stars capsized during a typhoon in the central Philippines, killing nearly 800 people.

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