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Ferry becomes mass coffin

July 1, 2008

princess.jpgMANILA - The 23,824-ton, seven-story “Princess of the Stars” superferry of Sulpicio Lines became a steel coffin for some 800 passengers and crewmen who were trapped inside the boat as it capsized off Romblon at the height of typhoon Frank June 21.
Several days after the incident, all hopes of finding more survivors waned after navy divers entered the hull of the upturned ship. They pulled out bodies and saw scores of others floating inside the ill-fated ship.
This dashed the hopes of thousands of relatives of missing passengers who had prayed for a miracle. “There are many bodies trapped inside,” said Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council meanwhile said a total of more than 600 have perished in the typhoon which also destroyed an estimated P7 billion in infrastructure, crops and properties. This, plus the some 800 who died in the sinking of the ferry brings the death toll to more than 1,400.

Coast Guard Commodore Luis Tuazon said retrieval of bodies inside the ferry was stopped June 27 because of toxic materials inside the ship which pose danger to the divers. Frogmen recounted seeing bodies floating face up inside the ship.
Princess of the Stars sank in rough waters off Romblon at the height of
typhoon “Frank” (international codename Fengshen) on June 21. The
vessel, with 862 passengers and 121 crew, was on its way to Cebu from
Manila when it ran into the path of the typhoon while seeking shelter.
Arevalo said the divers couldn’t provide much details about the dead
found inside the ill-fated vessel because of poor visibility.
“It was too dark inside to tell how many were children or elderly, but
they did say they were mostly floating and they were apparently trapped
inside,” he said. Asked if there might be survivors trapped in air
pockets inside the vessel, Arevalo said “miracles do happen.”
Arevalo said the waters were still quite rough, making it difficult to
enter and exit the sunken vessel.
Arevalo said that while some of the bodies had life vests, “it seems the
passengers hesitated from jumping into the turbulent waters” because “it
happened too suddenly,” referring to survivors’ accounts of the ship
quickly listing and going down in a half-hour or less.
“(With the life vests) you will survive for a few hours, but in time,
the air will run out,” he added.
Coast Guard chief Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said about 20 divers were
at the scene and were expected to be joined by frogmen from a US Navy
ship coming from Guam. Another US Navy ship, the USS Stockham, arrived
from Japan to assist in the search and rescue efforts.
Tamayo said the divers had broken windows and used every other gap they
could find to get inside the ship which has only one end jutting from the water off Sibuyan island.
The Coast Guard, said spokesman Armand Balilo, is still focused on
search and rescue and that it’s up to on-scene commander Commodore
Cecille Chen to shift to search and retrieval.
Residents from nearby Sibuyan island gathered along the shoreline to
watch the grim retrieval operation. The smell of diesel hung in the air.
National Disaster Coordinating Council head Anthony Golez said 57 people
had survived the sinking, one of the worst maritime disasters in
the country’s history.
The government is set to investigate the sinking, with some officials
calling for the revoking of the business license of Sulpicio Lines.
The company also owned the MV Doña Paz, which sank in 1987 in the Tablas
Strait, killing close to 4,000 people.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) it expected the toll to rise as reports continued to trickle in from remote areas in the country. It said the number of casualties left by the typhoon had risen to 600 persons dead and hundreds more still missing. If the 800 killed when the Princess of the Stars capsized are included, this means the death toll should surpass more than 1,000.
Most of the fatalities who died from drowning, electrocution or being
hit by flying objects came from Western Visayas, the OCD said.
OCD-Iloilo also reported that thousands of families whose houses were
swept away by massive flooding are still staying in various evacuation
centers.
In its last disaster briefing, OCD deputy administrator Anthony Golez said the agency is still in the process of getting complete reports from field offices to come up with an official and complete report on typhoon damage
It is roughly estimated that Typhoon Frank (international codename Fengshan), caused more than P7 billion in damages to crops, properties and government infrastructures as it lashed the Visayas, Manila and Luzon with more than 150 kilometers-per-hour winds and heavy rains.
A state of calamity was declared in several provinces and cities throughout the country. Landslides, severe flooding and the loss of dozens of fishing boats left at least 100 dead and scores more missing, the officials said, mostly in central Philippines, which bore the brunt of the storm.
More than 200 people were still missing on the central island of Negros,
while 63,000 people are still in evacuation centers after flash floods
and landslides forced them to flee their homes, the civil defense agency
said.
The Department of Agriculture reported that damage to farm
crops has reached nearly P555 million, covering about 246,441 hectares
of land planted to palay (unhusked rice) and other crops in Western
Visayas and 12 other provinces in Luzon and elsewhere in the Visayas.
Initial reports submitted to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap (who is with President Arroyo in the US) by the Department’s Central Action Center said that as of Monday, 242,213 hectares of palay fields, 1,064 hectares of corn lands, and 3,164 hectares planted to vegetables and high-value commercial crops were
damaged by the typhoon.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) initially placed at
P710 million the damage to infrastructure brought about by Typhoon
Frank. Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said this is a conservative
estimate and does not yet include damages to other government structures
and school buildings.
In Central Luzon, the Nueva Ecija-Aurora road remains impassable because
of landslides from kilometer 192 to 194 in Barangay Dipawan, San Luis.
Clearing operations are ongoing.
In Region 4-B (Mimaropa), the San Agustin-Sta. Maria Road in Tablas,
Romblon remains impassable because of flash floods. The Tablas
Circumferential Road is also not passable to traffic.
Western Visayas (Region 6) saw the most damage worth about P500 million.
Six road networks, including the Sigma-Dao-Cuartero Road, and the
Pontevedra-Panitan Road in Capiz; Sta. Barbara-Cabatuan-Cainog Road,
Guimbal-Tubungan Road, Alimodian Road and Passi-Duenas Road in Iloilo,
remain impassable.
In Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), the Palo-Carigara-Ormoc Road in Leyte is
temporarily passable with bailey panels temporarily installed at the
damaged Carigara bridge approach, while the Libungan-Matag-ob-Palompon
and the Sto. Rosario-Villaba Road in Leyte remains impassable.

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