THE captain did not issue an order to abandon ship when the ferry began listing on Saturday night. Neither did the crew announce that the boat was taking water.

Within minutes, the MV Baleno 9 sank at San Agapito Point in Isla Verde near Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro. It was the second sea tragedy in less than three days.

?It happened very fast. I was sleeping on a bench but soon found myself clinging on a floater (life ring),? passenger Eric Musni said in a radio interview after a rescue ship brought some of the survivors to the Batangas City port.

Musni said dozens of people on the water were crying for help and calling out the names of their family members and relatives. ?I don?t know what happened to my mother and elder sister,? he said.

At least six people were confirmed dead, including an 11-month-old baby girl, while 36 others were missing when Baleno 9, bound for Batangas City, went down 1.6 nautical miles off Isla Verde.

Sixty-nine passengers had been rescued as of late yesterday afternoon. Baleno 9 was carrying at least 88 people.

On Christmas Eve, the MV Catalyn B collided with a fishing boat and sank near the mouth of Manila Bay while on its way to Lubang Island from North Harbor in Manila. Three people died and at least 23 were missing.

Loud thud

Radio station dzBB quoted several rescued passengers brought to the Batangas port as saying that they were roused from sleep by a loud thud and then felt the ship tilting.

Everything happened so fast, they said. Many of them did not even had the time to put on life vests.

Sen. Richard Gordon, who went to the port so he could lead a Red Cross response team, said the sinking could be due to improperly fastened motor vehicles on board.

?The trip was supposed to be only for two hours but an hour and a half into the trip, the motor vehicles were still not tied securely,? Gordon told dzBB.

He later said that the first mate had told him that the ship left Calapan port for an hour, but the crew had not yet finished ?lashing? the vehicles.

Trucks, jeeps

The 199-ton vessel, which had a maximum passenger capacity of 284, carried nine motor vehicles at the time of the sinking, according to the Coast Guard.

The vehicles included a 10-wheel truck, a six-wheel truck, four cargo jeeps and a car, said Cecill Chen, Coast Guard-Southern Tagalog district chief.

Gordon quoted the first mate as saying that the ship had listed, prompting the captain to order him to investigate.

The first mate then went to the basement and found it taking water.

Gordon said survivors also told him that the ship was ?OK? when it left the port, but halfway into the trip, it capsized.

?There was no order to abandon ship. It was everyone for himself,? he quoted the survivors as telling him.

Bow ramp

An initial report of the Coast Guard said Baleno 9 had left Calapan about half an hour earlier before sinking.

?Initial inquiry from the survivors disclosed that the vessel took in water coming from the bow ramp and severely affected the stability of the vessel, causing her to badly list and eventually sink,? said the Coast Guard spokesperson, Lt. Commander Armand Balilo.

Troy Cornelio, Coast Guard Batangas station commander, said the interisland vessel operated by Besta Shipping Lines was hit by big waves. Baleno 9 left the port of Calapan at 9:18 p.m. a day after Christmas.

Cornelio said the captain, Jimmy Andal, abandoned ship. Fifteen crew members, he said, had left the Coast Guard office after giving statements and eating, while one stayed on Isla Verde.

Manifest

The manifest contained just 20 names when there were 103 people on board, according to Gordon. He said he got even more irked when Coast Guard authorities showed him a ?supplemental manifest.?'

?It?s so strange. Suddenly, there is a supplemental manifest when the only manifest I saw since this morning was that containing 20 names,? said Gordon, who was at the Batangas port at 1 a.m. yesterday.

He said the ship owner was liable for negligence, adding that those people in the business of ferrying people should exercise ?extraordinary diligence? in choosing manpower to ensure safe voyage.

At press time, four Red Cross rubber boats were deployed to help search for the missing. The Philippine Navy sent teams on an aircraft and on two patrol ships to look for survivors.

Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, Navy spokesperson, said rescue teams had widened their search to 455-sq nautical miles from the Maricaban Island and 5 nautical miles off Calapan.

Funeral homes

Four bodies were brought to Funeraria Naujan while two were taken to St. Peter Funeral Chapel, said Guada Fe de Leon, Red Cross administrator in Oriental Mindoro. Both funeral homes are in Calapan.

De Leon identified three of the dead in Funeraria Naujan as Juny Mutya, 36, of Socorro, Oriental Mindoro; Lealyn Peñaranda, 2; and 11-month-old Angelica Balanza, of Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro.

Balanza?s father Dennis, a fisherman, survived, but he said his wife Haydeline got lost in the sea.

Dennis said the boat's officers did not issue an alarm when water got inside the boat.

Two of the fatalities at St. Peter Funeral Chapel were identified as John Panagsaga of Aklan and Jenelyn Gutierrez of Calapan.

Bundled cash

Peso bills amounting to P200,000, bundled in a cloth, were retrieved from Mutya by police rescuers led by Senior Supt. Sonny Ricablanca, provincial police director.

Luningning Centron, Red Cross provincial chair, a native of Socorro town like Mutya, said she would facilitate the turnover of the money to Mutya?s family.

Two children?John Paul, 7, and Nina Angeline, 13?were hospitalized due to trauma.

Algier Ricafrente, Coast Guard Calapan station commander, said the bodies were retrieved in Isla Verde on Sunday morning. Sixty-six people were rescued by 10:45 p.m.

They were rescued by a passing vessel of the Montenegro Shipping Lines, and by the Coast Guard, Batangas police and personnel from MV Besta Shipping Lines.

Two of those rescued, Alberto Perez and Archie Amalio, were recuperating at the Batangas Regional Hospital.

Others, who were among the first batch of 17 survivors who arrived at the Batangas port on Sunday morning, had already went home after medical checkup and interview, Cornelio said.

Six other survivors arrived at the port at around 3 p.m. Sunday from Calapan. They were identified as Ken Mark Musni, Brian Musni, Aries Musni, Jonathan Umali, Fhrea Musni and Fidel Musni.

Besta Lines suspended

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza ordered the suspension of the operations of Besta Shipping Lines, which has five roll on, roll off vessels serving Oriental Mindoro and Batangas routes, hours after one of its boats sank.

Pedro Ang, owner of the Manila-based Besta, was quoted by radio dzMM as saying that the shipping lines was ready to pay for burial and hospitalization expenses of the dead and injured passengers.

Ang denied accusations that the ship was old and in no condition to set sail.