Cagayan ferry overloaded--officials
Death toll up
By Abigail Kwok, Katherine Evangelista, Villamor Visaya Jr.
INQUIRER.net, Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 11:21:00 12/16/2008
Filed Under: Maritime Accidents, Accidents (general), Cagayan ferry disaster
TUGUEGARAO CITY -- (UPDATE 3) Overloading is being looked into as a reason for the boat accident last Sunday off Aparri in Cagayan province where at least 28 people were killed and 26 still reported missing, authorities said Tuesday.
Senior Inspector Alex delos Santos, Ballesteros police chief, told INQUIRER.net in Manila that rescue teams have successfully recovered another body a few kilometers off Abulug town. Four other bodies were recovered a few kilometers away from Ballesteros.
Delos Santos said that because of the waves, rescue teams have resorted to aerial rescue operations through the help of the Philippine Air Force.
“Hindi po gumagalaw ang Coast Guard natin dahil sa lakas ng alon [Our Coast Guard is not moving because of the strong waves],” he added.
Chief Superintendent Roberto Damian, Cagayan Valley police director, and Lieutenant Senior Gary Gimotea, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman, said the fatalities included a one-year-old boy and the boat owner-operator.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gimotea said four more bodies were found in the vicinity of Barangay (village) Cabaritan, West Ballesteros and their discovery was reported to authorities at around 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Three of the four were identified as two females, between 17 and 20 years old; and a boy of about three to five years old, Gimotea said.
Of the four, only one was identified as Rhea Cangas, but whose name does not appear among the list of missing victims released by the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Monday afternoon, Gimotea said.
Damian, who heads the regional disaster coordinating council, identified some of the fatalities as boat owner Amy Tan-Arellano and her daughter Abena, Calayan town councilor Winifredo Agarpao, Angel Suarez, Crispin Cangas, Eva Llopis, Ofelia Manero, Mark Escalante, Asela Tabua, Lalaine Allado, Leonardo Llopis, Marilou Menor, and Bella Llopis.
The NDCC in Manila listed down 46 survivors although Damian said there were 45, mostly from Calayan island-town in Cagayan, who were rescued along the shoreline in Ballesteros, Abulug and Sanchez Mira towns.
Most of them were treated at the Ballesteros district hospital and some of them were later housed at a dormitory in Tuguegarao City.
Navy frogmen, soldiers, police and volunteers from the Cagayan disaster coordinating council resumed their search and rescue operations Tuesday morning after temporarily halting it Monday night due to strong waves, gusty winds and darkness, Damian said.
Delos Santos said the relatives of the victims expressed relief over the statement of the Philippine Coast Guard officials that they would investigate the sea tragedy.
The Coast Guard formed a Special Board of Marine Inquiry to be led by Northern Luzon commander Captain Adelo Ibañez.
Gimotea and Senior Superintendent Moro Virgilio Lazo, Cagayan police director, said the M/B Mae Jan was overloaded, carrying about 100 passengers when it was only licensed to have about 40 people and 10 crewmen on board.
Lazo said the boat captain, identified as Dami Tan who survived, would be invited for questioning by the Marine Board Inquiry.
"The captain should have declared that only 40 passengers should be boarded on that vessel but it seems he neglected that [maritime] circular," said Gimotea.
Coastguard chief Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said the list of those aboard could be used as evidence that the boat captain and the owner were overloading.
Delos Santos also said that the chances that the remaining missing passengers were still alive were “very slim,” given that they had been off shore for over 48 hours – a view that the NDCC did not share.
In a briefing in Manila, Office of Civil Defense Executive Officer Ronald Flores said that it was possible that survivors might have been washed ashore on the many islets scattered in the vicinity of the accident.
Some passengers could have swum to nearby towns of Pamplona, Abulug, and Sanchez, police and rescue teams here said.
Region 2 Office of Civil Defense Director Melchito Castro said that search and rescue operations for the missing victims were ongoing and that they would only shift to search and retrieval once no survivors would be found.
Delos Santos said he informed police from these areas to be on the lookout for passengers who might end up in their towns.
“Actually yung [the] 29 missing is based on the knowledge of the survivors,” he said, adding that they have yet to obtain a passenger manifest.
The boat had set off from Calayan Island for Aparri town in northern Luzon when it was hit by strong waves and capsized.
Gimotea said that the coastguard did not have a station at Calayan and could not prevent the overloaded vessel from sailing, adding that the vessel had all the correct permits.
A board of inquiry is investigating the incident but is mainly concerned with its cause and is not looking to file charges, he said.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development has conducted a critical incident and stress debriefing to the survivors and families of the dead and missing passengers, the NDCC reported.
The waters where the ferry capsized remained rough, hampering search and rescue operations, Gimotea added.
The capsizing was the latest in a string of maritime accidents to hit the archipelago, where many people rely on poorly maintained ferries to travel between islands and overloading is common.
In November, at least 42 people died when a ferry was hit by a freak whirlwind in the central Philippines. One person died in a separate incident late in the month.
In June, the 23,000-ton Princess of the Stars, carrying 850 passengers and crew, capsized after hitting a reef off the central island of Sibuyan at the height of Typhoon Fengshen.
Only 57 passengers and crew survived in the country's worst maritime disaster for 20 years.
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