Superferry 9 Sinks; 5 Dead 63 Missing
by Philstar News
MANILA, Philippines – Five people drowned and 900 terrified passengers, many roused from their sleep, were rescued after the M/V SuperFerry 9 sailing from General Santos City to Iloilo City listed then sank off Zamboanga del Norte early yesterday.
A search was under way for 63 people who remained missing, Coast Guard Commandant Rear Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said, adding that they may have drifted with their life jackets or have been rescued but were not yet listed as survivors.
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“We really hope they’re just unaccounted for due to the confusion,” Tamayo said.
The rescued passengers and crewmen on board the Superferry 9 were transferred to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat hours after the ferry began to list before dawn.
A child’s body was fished out of waters near the site, according to Lt. Commander Armand Balilio, Coast Guard spokesman.
The SuperFerry 9, owned by Aboitiz Transport System (ATS), was allowed to set sail since the weather was normal, he added.
Speaking to reporters in Manila, Coast Guard officials said 900 of the 968 people on board have been rescued as of 3:05 p.m. yesterday.
They were still verifying the figures as several vessels were involved in the rescue operation, he added.
Among those rescued was the ship’s captain, Jose Yap, he said.
Tamayo said most of the passengers were rescued by MV Ocean Integrity and MV Myriad, which are also owned by Aboitiz Transport System.
The survivors were taken to Zamboanga City, where they will be provided with necessary assistance, he added.
Two Air Force helicopters and a Navy plane have been sent to the scene to help locate other passengers.
American troops providing counterterrorism training to Philippine soldiers in the region deployed a civilian helicopter and five boats, some carrying paramedics, to help, US Col. William Coultrup said.
The SuperFerry 9 was carrying 847 passengers, 117 crew members and four sea marshals.
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship. The bodies of two other passengers were later plucked from the sea by fishermen, the Coast Guard said, adding that three passengers were injured.
The cause of the listing was not clear. The ferry skipper initially ordered everyone on board to abandon ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry.
There were reports that the ferry listed to the right due to a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. As the 7,268-ton ferry tilted, some passengers may have panicked and jumped into the water, the Coast Guard said.
Passenger Roger Cinciron told dzMM radio by cell phone that he felt the ferry was tilting around midnight but he was assured by a crewman that everything was fine. About two hours later, he was roused from sleep by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he said.
“People began to panic because the ship was really tilting,” he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.
The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo City late Sunday but ran into problems midway and began to list about 15 kilometers from the nearest shore, Tamayo said.
There were no signs of possible terrorism, Tamayo said.
Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another Superferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia’s second-worst terrorist attack.
The weather was generally fair in the Zamboanga peninsula region although a tropical storm was battering the country’s mountainous north, the Coast Guard said.
Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.
In December 1987, the ferry Doña Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Distress call
At 4 a.m., the ship sent a distress call while listing off Zamboanga del Norte en route to Iloilo City, he added.
Rear Adm. Alexander Pama, Naval Forces Western Mindanao chief, said the SuperFerry 9 tilted after encountering huge waves off Zamboanga del Norte.
After sending a distress call, captain Jose Yap ordered the passengers and crew to abandon ship, he added.
Five hours after sending the distress signal, SuperFerry 9 sank, Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino said.
Tamayo said the Coast Guard vessel BRP Corregidor was sent to the scene for oil spill response operations if necessary.
“It was learned that the SuperFerry 9 was carrying 200,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, 80,000 liters automotive diesel oil and 10,000 liters of lube oil when she departed Manila for Iloilo and General Santos City and supposedly until her return voyage from General Santos to Iloilo and Manila,” he said.
No dangerous or hazardous cargo was declared to be on board, Tamayo said.
Pama said 630 people were rescued from the SuperFerry 9 before the ship sank.
“According to our reports, the ship sank long after the captain ordered the passengers to abandon ship, so they were all able to wear life vests and all the life rafts were deployed,” he said.
Pama said four Navy vessels are now scouring the area for search and rescue for the remaining 300 passengers of the said.
Rescuers are searching nearby islands for those who might have drifted to the coast, he added.
Pama said they have taken the rescued passengers to nearby Sirawai town so naval vessels could be fully used in the search and rescue operations.
“It would take us quite some time to bring the rescued passengers to Zamboanga so we decided to bring them first to Sirawai so that the ships could immediately return to the area to look for the other passengers,” he said.
Aboitiz issues statement
Aboitiz Transport System issued the following statement yesterday:
“At 2:30 a.m. of Sept. 6, 2009, SuperFerry 9 reported that it was listing to the right in the vicinity of Batarompon Pt., West of Zamboanga Peninsula.
“The vessel was carrying 847 passengers, 117 crew members and four sea marshals or a total of 968 persons on board.
“All passengers were told to put on life vests while the master tried to correct the list. When he determined that the list was irreversible, he ordered abandon ship and life rafts were launched.
“Crowd crisis control measures were conducted by the crew who assisted in the donning of life
vests and in the manning of emergency crew stations.
“All the life raft stations were manned immediately. The crew of Super Ferry and the marshals on board proceeded with the safety
drills and helped with the evacuation of passengers.
“The crew were the last to depart the ship at 8:42 a.m., when SuperFerry 9 tilted and sank. SuperFerry assured the relatives of the passengers that SuperFerry 9 had enough life jackets and life boats for the passengers.”
Red Cross sends help
The Philippine National Red Cross gave first aid, psychological support and other assistance to survivors of the ill-fated Superferry 9.
Gwendolyn Pang, PNRC secretary general, said they have set up welfare desks to provide the necessary assistance to the passengers and their families.
“Our staff and volunteers were already in the area to give first aid and necessary assistance that the victims will need,” she said.
“Welfare desks were also set up for medical assessment, first aid, psychosocial support and tracing services.”
The PNRC chapters in Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay and General Santos City have sent ambulances to the scene to give first aid assistance to the passengers, Pang said. — With James Mananghaya, Mayen Jaymalin – By Helen Flores and Edith Regalado (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
