Vessel’s engine catches fire; passengers, crew rescued

Avelardo Torrevillas Jr. was at pier 3 of the Cebu City port, waiting for the arrival of his father, a chief mate of the M/V Island Ferry Fastcraft 1 from Bohol province when he received the bad news at past noon yesterday.

“I was waiting for him to come so that I could board the ship back to Bohol with him,” the sobbing 20-year-old Avelardo told Cebu Daily News at the Island Express Office, hours after the vessel caught fire and sank off the coast of barangay Tangke, Talisay City.

The elder Torrevillas reportedly drowned not long after giving his lifejacket to a female passenger (see related story).

He and two female passengers were confirmed by the Coast Guard as having perished in the sinking which occurred amid stormy weather.

The two victims were identified as 60-year-old Necitas Cabrera and 39-year-old Matea Enfiesto, both residents of Lapu-Lapu City.

About 71 persons were rescued from the vessel by the Coast Guard, fisherfolk and crew from a responding passenger vessel.

The survivors consisted of 64 passengers and seven crew members.

An unidentified passenger remains missing, Coast Guard chief Admiral Ramon Liwag said.

He said the fire was reportedly caused by an electrical problem in the ship’s engine room.

An investigation was under way, Liwag said. Coast Guard officer Fidel Hibaya, who’s assigned at the Tubigon town detachment in Bohol province, said the captain  ordered passengers and crew to abandon the ship when the fire began to spread.

The Island Express I owned by Island Shipping Corp. was bound for Cebu when it caught fire while at sea.

Most of the passengers were said to be from Tubigon town, Bohol who study and work in Cebu City. The Coast Guard received the report of the sinking at 12:20 p.m.

Fishermen in the vicinity who saw the black smoke coming out of the ferry went to rescue the 67 passengers.

They were aided by crew from the Sea Jet, another vessel bound for Bohol province.

About 64 passengers were rescued by Sea Jet including eight crew members and were brought to Tubigon Community District Hospital in Tubigon town, Bohol.

Among those brought to the hospital were the remains of Torrevillas, Cabrera and Enfiesto.

Seajet captain Camilio Depalobos said they only saw Torrevillas’s body floating when they arrived at the site.

“We don’t really know what the cause of death was, but when we saw him he was already floating lifeless,” he said.

The chief mate’s daughter Lyn who went to the Coast Guard office in Cebu City said she hoped that Island Shipping Corp. would  assist her family in transporting her father’s remains.

In a radio interview Victoria Ceniza-Gerano, administrative officer of the Tubigon District Hospital, said most of the passengers already went home after receiving medication and food assistance.

Of the 64 survivors brought to the hospital, only six were confined including a four-month-old baby.

Gerano said the baby was saved by her mother, who covered her daughter with her own lifejacket.

Gerano said Tubigon Mayor William Jao and Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto visited the hospital to check on the passengers and facilitate material assistance.

The Rotary Club of Tubigon donated clothes and slippers for the survivors, she added.

The hospital chief said passengers whose cell phones were soaked transferred their simpacks to working cell phones in order to call their relatives.

Gerano said Mixcel Tan, a representative of Island Shipping Corp., visited the hospital and assured that they will pay for the medical expenses of the passengers.

Island Shipping Corp. owned by Alex Tan, operates vessels plying between Tubigon-Cebu and Sta Fe in Bantayan to Hagnaya routes. Candeze R. Mongaya, Edison delos Angeles and Marian Z. CodillaWith reports from Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan and AP