Ferry salvage team to remove toxic cargo: Philippines official

Starting Monday, the plan is to bore a hole in the hull of the sunken Princess of the Stars to remove containers containing 10 tonnes of endosulfan pesticide so that the recovery of bodies can continue.

The 24,000-tonne vessel is perched upside down on a reef off the central island of Sibuyan, with part of its hull jutting from the waters.

Only 57 survivors have been found, along with 161 bodies, many of them having washed ashore to nearby islands.

It is believed that most of the dead are trapped inside the hull.

The ferry carrying about 850 people on board was sunk by Typhoon Fengshen eight days ago, but the already slow-moving rescue operation was suspended on Friday after it emerged the vessel was carrying containers of pesticide.

Philippine coast guard and navy divers, assisted by US navy frogmen, were immediately pulled out the water amid growing fury among relatives of the dead at the slow pace of the operation.

"We will commence cutting of the hull tomorrow (Monday)," coast guard chief Wilfredo Tamayo told reporters.

An advance party of Subsea Services Inc., which is registered in the Philippines and uses British and Filipino specialists, arrived at the site on Sunday but said their work will start on Monday when their heavy equipment reaches the area from Singapore.

"We will first have to do an assessment using a CCTV camera. We will monitor and survey the site and we will bore small holes so we can get water samples," said the team's supervisor Chris Kenneman.

"We can break through as quickly as one day depending on the conditions and the thickness of the panel," he told reporters.

One of the specialists said they had a good idea of where on the boat the toxic cargo was.

The removal of the containers should be completed by Wednesday, after which the salvage company, hired by the ferry's operators, would study the removal of the fuel on board, the coast guard's Tamayo said.

It was not clear when the grim search for bodies would continue.

Authorities had belatedly learnt that the ferry had been illegally carrying large volumes of the toxic pesticide that might leak into the water.

Tamayo said Sulpicio Lines, the ferry operator, and the authorities have studied but ruled out refloating the vessel for the time being.

"That option has been considered earlier but it was deemed that the cutting of a hole in the vessel is more appropriate at this time," Tamayo said.

A maritime industry official said on Saturday that Sulpicio Lines would be unable to claim full damages from insurers if the boat was refloated.

Sulpicio Lines has had at least three other major accidents since 1987, when its Dona Paz vessel collided with an oil tanker, killing around 4,000 people in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.

The government has suspended the company's operations until further notice. A board of inquiry was also conducting hearings on the company's possible liability.