Three people were killed as rescuers searched for at least three others still missing with more than a hundred rescued after the Maharlika 2 RORO ferry boat sank in waters off the central Philippines Saturday night.
The "roll on, roll off" ferry boat sank on Saturday night due to engine trouble and bad weather caused by Typhoon "LUIS" (International name: Kalmaegi) off San Ricardo in Southern Leyte.
As of 11 a.m. Sunday, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) officials placed the number of survivors at 110, with three confirmed dead and 14 injured who were taken to Caraga Regional Hospital in Surigao City.
MV Maharlika 2 left Lipata Port, Surigao around 11:30 a.m. Saturday for Liloan town, Southern Leyte, amid strong winds and choppy waters off the Surigao-Leyte channel.
According to the official manifest, the ship carried 58 passengers, and 13 vehicles of varying sizes, including a passenger bus.
The local PDRRMC officials identified two of the three fatalities as Armando Mosqueda of Cagayan de Oro City and Rahima Ismael of Maguindanao. Ana Marie Custodio, said her father, vessel chief engineer Nelso Custodio, was still missing.
3 people still missing
Cmdr. Armand Balilo, spokesman of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), said in Manila that 116 people were on board the vessel. He said 110 of them had been rescued and three had died. He said PCG rescue teams were searching for the three missing.
Citing a report of the Coast Guard station in Cagayan de Oro City, Balilo disclosed that three children—two boys and a girl—were among the survivors. They were among 34 people rescued by the MV Maharlika 4, a sister ship of the ill-fated vessel, he said.
Fifty-six others were rescued by the MV St. Martin, another interisland vessel; 19 by the foreign merchant ship MV Lara Venture; and one by the MT Orient King.
Overloaded?
In a phone interview, Balilo said the PCG would look into reports that nearly two dozen passengers—mostly drivers and conductors of the 13 vehicles the ship was also carrying—were not listed on the vessel’s manifest. “All persons on board the ship should automatically be listed on the manifest,” he said.
Citing an account of Juan Cayago, the ship’s captain, Balilo said the vessel was carrying 85 passengers and 31 crew members, or a total of 116 people.
The government's spokeswoman Abigail Valte. said the captain had told the coast guard there were 116 people on board when the vessel went down in bad weather, in contrast with earlier reports that there were only 84 passengers and crew on the manifest.
The vessel was hit by huge waves during bad weather worsened by the approach of Typhoon Luis/Kalmaegi to the northern Philippines, civil defense officials said earlier.
Frequent accidents have claimed hundreds of lives in recent years, including the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster in 1987 when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, leaving more than 4,300 dead.--Source: Inquirer/ABS-CBN News