MANILA, Philippines—A US Navy P-3 Orion spy plane and a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) aircraft Wednesday spotted scores of bodies believed to be from the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars floating in waters along Quezon province and the Bicol region.
US Navy Lt. Christian de Salvo told reporters in San Fernando town on Sibuyan Island that the Orion’s precision cameras had captured images of 55 bodies—50 in one group and five others scattered over a wide area between the islands of Sibuyan and Burias—four days after the vessel ran into a powerful typhoon and sank with more than 800 people aboard.
PCG Cmdr. Rogelio Villanueva said in Manila that PCG aircraft saw 87 bodies bobbing along the coastlines of Quezon and Masbate provinces and in Pasacao town in Camarines Sur province, Wednesday. He said some of the corpses were wearing life vests, apparently from the ferry.
Villanueva did not discount the possibility that some of those bodies were also seen by other rescue aircraft or that they could be casualties of other wrecked fishing boats.
Chief Supt. Luisito Palmera, regional police director and head of the disaster coordinating council in San Fernando, said Philippine vessels had been dispatched to retrieve the bodies.
Philippine Navy spokesperson Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said 10 bodies had been recovered by the Navy, including three washed ashore at Palana Point on Burias. One of the dead appeared to be a Caucasian. The seven others were taken from San Pascual in Masbate.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the PCG said so far only 48 survivors had been found out of the ferry’s 862 passengers and crew on board. The fatalities totaled 70, the PCG said, and 744 remained unaccounted for.
The tragedy could be the Philippines’ worst maritime disaster since 1987 when the Dońa Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people. Both the Princess of the Stars and the Dońa Paz are owned by Sulpicio Lines.
2 more bodies retrieved
Philippine and American divers continued surveying the upside-down Princess of the Stars for signs of life. The 23,800-ton ferry capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province on Saturday while en route from Manila to Cebu City.
Divers Wednesday retrieved two more bodies from the ship’s dining area, where they had seen 15 bodies earlier. On Tuesday, three bodies were moved out of the bridge, the vessel’s control room.
“There is a very nil chance that anybody survived now,” said PCG’s Dr. Ted Esguerra.
“Even if you find air pockets, there is a big chance of experiencing hypothermia and suffocation because the air inside would be a mix of gases—carbon dioxide, the smell of bunker fuel,” Esguerra said.
He said that finding an air pocket in a submerged vessel was not an assurance that there would be survivors there.
De Salvo shared the same view, baring “some extraordinary circumstances.”
The US Navy sent eight divers to assist close to 40 divers from the PCG, Air Force and Navy in searching for survivors inside the upturned Princess of the Stars.
Ferry hanging in balance
Anchored some 32 kilometers off Sibuyan Island after traveling 20 hours from Sulu Sea on Monday, the US Navy’s Stockham also sent four rubber boats close to the accident site Wednesday.
The ship has also been dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle to conduct aerial reconnaissance around waters off Romblon, while two HH-60 Seahawks have been conducting airlift operations since the ship entered Sibuyan waters on Tuesday.
“This is what we’re trained and equipped to do,” De Salvo said, adding that US efforts were aimed at helping “give peace of mind to families” of those who perished in the sea mishap.
Efforts to find bodies and survivors continued as authorities planned the best approach to proceed with the search, with careful consideration of the ship’s position on shallow waters near the island.
“It was reported that the ship is hanging in balance on a cliff and is in danger that it will slide [into a deeper part of the sea],” Palmera said.
The ferry is lying on unstable coral and villagers said a deep trench may be nearby, so there are fears it could slip and plunge deeper.
Fear over ship’s fuel
Concern over the ship’s fuel load, some 290,000 liters, Palmera said, had prevented search and rescue teams from boring a hole through the ship, among other worries about pressure conditions inside the ship’s submerged cabins.
Palmera said Sulpicio Lines planned to siphon off the ship’s bunker fuel.
The Princess of the Stars had first listed on a reef near the Sibuyan coast before waves generated by Typhoon “Frank” turned it upside down and sent the vessel into a quick descent until only between five and 10 meters of the bow thruster remained on the surface.
Mayor fumes
The mayor of San Fernando, Nanette Tansingco, Wednesday blew her top and broke into tears during a meeting with a delegation that arrived Wednesday from Manila consisting of representatives from the Presidential Management Staff and the departments of social welfare and transport and communications.
Tansingco said that national officials had been coming in and out of her town for media engagements but had not given assistance to the local government. She said she had been using her personal funds for emergency operations.
The mayor and residents of the town said that other areas on the island were also on an emergency mode dealing with destruction caused by the typhoon.
On Wednesday, Sulpicio Lines finally pulled out five fatalities in the town whose stench had caused complaints from a nearby school. With reports from Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas, Ephraim Aguilar, Madonna Virola and Juan Escandor Jr., Jaymee T. Gamil and Delfin Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon
