ILOILO CITY, Philippines – A passenger ship from Cebu bound for Iloilo listed and sank off the coast of Iloilo Sunday morning, a Coast Guard official said.
All 107 passengers and 35 crew members of the MV Asia Malaysia were safe and transferred to other ships and boats after the ship captain issued an abandon-ship order before the vessel sank, Commodore Athelo Ybañez, Western Visayas Coast Guard commander, told the INQUIRER in telephone interview.
Ybañez said the ship captain issued a distress signal and abandon-ship order shortly before 6 a.m. after the ship listed by 35 degrees on its starboard (right side) four nautical miles off Calabasas Island in Ajuy town, 87 km northeast of Iloilo City.
The passengers and crew members were transferred to ships and boats in the vicinity of the vessel which responded to the distress call. These include the MV Filipinas Cebu and MT Fil Visayas.
Ten crew members including the ship captain stayed behind until they transferred to a lifeboat shortly before the boat sank at 8:50 a.m.
The ship captain told Coast Guard officials that it listed after being hit by strong and big waves and took in water.
The passengers and crew members transferred to the MV Filipinas Cebu were expected to arrive in Iloilo around 10:30 a.m. while those on board the MT Fil Visayas will be brought to Bacolod
City, Negros Occidental. The others, who were rescued by fishing boats, will be brought to Ajuy.
The ship, which was operated by Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc., left Cebu around 6 p.m. Saturday and was expected to arrive in Iloilo at 8 a.m.
On Dec. 23, 1999, the MV Asia South Korea, operated by the same shipping lines, sank off Bantayan Island in Cebu where 54 people died.