MANILA, Philippines -- There were palm prints on the ship's windows, bodies were bloated four to five times their size. And death was palpable both above and below the water.

The sheer horror of the dead bodies of passengers of the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars and the difficulty of retrieving them have left even veteran Coast Guard divers weak, sapped of their physical strength and overwhelmed by their emotions.

But beyond the horrors, the divers interviewed by the INQUIRER Saturday also spoke of the mission they felt compelled to accomplish at all cost and at the risk of their own lives.

Vanessa Garon, 28, and her sister Alexandra, 23, are the only two women divers helping the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) retrieve bodies inside the wreck of the ill-fated ship.

The INQUIRER caught up with the sisters, daughters of counselors Bob and Emmy Garon, Saturday during their checkup at the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City.

Authorities stopped retrieval operations when it was learned that the ship carried a cargo of the toxic pesticide endosulfan. Concerned about the health of the divers, officials ordered them to undergo medical tests.

The two first dove into the wreck last Thursday and had logged in around 80 minutes underwater. They went down as far as 120 feet.

"From the top, you can smell death. Underwater, you can actually feel death," Coast Guard auxiliary diver Vanessa said.

What they saw below was something they said they might never forget. "What really struck me were palm prints on the windows. It was like people were trying to get out. When I saw that, I could feel their panic. I asked myself what I would feel if I were in their position in those last few minutes. It was very spooky," the dusky and petite Vanessa said.

"It felt really eerie down there. There were a lot of bodies. There were bodies all around and it was really hard getting them out. It's not as simple as plucking them out of the wreck," said Alexandra, nicknamed Alex.

Vanessa, who also participated in the retrieval operations on the Superferry sinking in 2004, said the operations on the M/V Princess of the Stars are more difficult. "This one is scarier. There was a lot of debris and that's dangerous. Visibility was very poor and that only increases the danger."

Add to that, the bloated bodies had to be weighted down so they could slip out of passageways and out to the surface. "We saw two or three divers, really big men, struggle with getting a single body out," Alex said.

The sisters have been diving for seven years, starting out as recreational divers. After Vanessa's experience with the Superferry incident, the two got on board as Coast Guard auxiliary officers. Vanessa holds the rank of lieutenant commander while Alex is an ensign.

Vanessa is a schoolteacher in a school established by her parents. Alex, on the other hand, works as an in-house psychiatrist for a rehabilitation center also established by the Garons. "At least we have day jobs to go back to. These guys do it for a living," said Vanessa said.

When they found out that pesticide was part of the ship's cargo, the sisters said they were more scared. "Why didn't they report it sooner? The Coast Guard is risking their lives to ease the pain of the relatives of the victims and to solve the problem of the company," said Vanessa.

But in the end, the sisters said they rely on their deep faith to continue their duties and to see them through whatever horrors they see. "I was praying more for these people. We had to pray for them to give them the respect they deserve," Alex said.

The sisters also spoke of their admiration for the heroism of the Coast Guard divers. "These guys work round the clock and under the worst conditions. And that's really tiring," Alex said.

Coast Guard diver Lieutenant Commander Inocencio Rosario was one of two divers who first dove into the M/V Princess of the Stars wreck.

In fact, before the accident, he was given command of the Coast Guards' BRP Pampanga Search and Rescue vessel. As initial reports of the sinking of the M/V Princess of Stars reached the Coast Guard, Rosario had to make the difficult decision of sailing the 56-meter boat to the wreck amid the lashing of Typhoon "Frank," putting his life and the life of his men in the path of the storm.

"My first impulse was race to scene because there might be passengers still alive. We braved the rough seas and risked our own lives," Rosario told the INQUIRER in Filipino.

Still, driven by the desire to rescue passengers, Rosario and a dive buddy decided to go in amid the choppy waters. Since then, Rosario has never left the site and has lost count of diving time spent underwater.

But nothing, not even his previous training as an elite Philippine Navy Special Warfare Group (SWAG) and his previous experiences as a rescue and retrieval diver which includes the Superferry incident, could have prepared him for what he saw down in the wreck of the M/V Princess of the Stars.

"I really pitied the dead passengers, and there were a lot of them ? a lot," Rosario told the INQUIRER, his voice choking up.

After a long pause, Rosario spoke again, this time tears welling in his eyes. "It was shocking. But we had to get over the shock because we had a job to do. We had to fight through our shock and fear."

There were bodies bloated beyond recognition and flesh peeling away and decomposing, Rosario said. They were careful not to tug at the bodies too strongly lest limbs detach. But often, limbs tearing apart could not be avoided. "Skin would attach themselves to our gloves," he said with an uncomfortable grimace.

By his account, Rosario said he pushed himself and his co-divers to the limit in the hope of finding survivors. "We took our chances with the storm coming here. We took our chances every single time we went down. We would surface just as our air ran out. That's how much we pushed it," he said with an empty gaze.

Even at this late hour, Rosario, a 38-year old native of Bugallon, Pangasinan, is still hoping against hope that someone is still alive inside the wreck. But even he recognizes the small probability of that happening. "I'm a Catholic so I believe in miracles. I'm still hoping, even if the chances are point-something of a percent."

And this is a reason why he said that as much as possible, he would never leave the site. "We are needed here. This is our job and we took an oath that we would perform our duties no matter what."