36 die as ferry capsizes in the Philippines

A FERRY loaded with nearly 200 people capsized off a central Philippine port yesterday, killing at least 36 people in the country’s latest maritime tragedy.

At least 26 people are still missing after the 30 000kg wooden-hulled Kim Nirvana tipped over in unexplained circumstances about half an hour after setting sail from Ormoc city at midday, the coast guard said.

Rescuers pulled more than 100 survivors from the sea and continued scouring the waters about 1km from the coast where the accident happened, said Ciriaco Tolibao, who is an official from the city’s disaster risk reduction and management office.

“Some clung on to the hull of the overturned vessel, while some were rescued while swimming towards the shore,” Tolibao said.

Just a small

section

of

the

boat’s

underbelly, surrounded by rescue boats, was visible above water by late afternoon.

Back in Ormoc city, a distraught male survivor wept openly as crew members clad in blue brought him ashore, as others, looking shaken, recounted their ordeal to rescue officials.

A nearby row of soaked survivors squatted on the pier awaiting attention, while medical workers placed the injured onto stretchers.

The vessel was carrying 173 passengers and 16 crew members, and was licenced to carry up to 200 people, Tolibao said.

Many of the passengers were traders bringing farm produce and other merchandise to the Camotes island grouping, whose residents rely mostly on fishing, Tolibao added.

Philippine coast guard spokesman, Commander Armand Balilo said 36 bodies had been recovered while 127 people were rescued.

The authorities were puzzled how the accident had happened in relatively calm waters, after initial reports of choppy seas, and discounted speculation that it was overloaded.

“There wasn’t any storm or any gale. We’re trying to find out (why it happened),” Balilo said.

He said the boat’s outriggers apparently broke in the accident, and added it was possible the crew had committed a navigational error.

The Kim Nirvana was on its normal route to the islands, which sit about an hour’s sail from Ormoc city.

Tolibao said at least 53 survivors were brought to the hospital while more than two dozen others walked home.

Ormoc and the rest of Leyte island was ravaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan which struck in November 2013, leaving more than 7 350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines.

A 1991 flash flood also killed around 6 000 people in Ormoc in one of the country’s deadliest natural disasters.

The disaster-plagued Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms each year – , many of them deadly.

Poorly maintained, loosely regulated ferries are the backbone of maritime travel in the sprawling archipelago.

But this has led to frequent accidents that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent year.

Among the disasters, include 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. — AFP