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Filipino ferry survivors recall ordeal as 110 saved
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SURVIVORS from a ferry that sank after encountering steering problems in the central Philippines said yesterday they were tossed about by the churning sea in darkness for six hours while praying and clinging to an overturned life raft before a passing ship rescued them.
“A few more hours in those huge, huge waves and we could have all died,” said ferry passenger Romeo Cabag, a 32-year-old security guard who survived with his wife, Wilma. “I had cramps in both legs, was exhausted, and at one point I was beginning to pray that if I won’t make it, that God allow at least my wife to live.”
Rescuers, including the crew on two passing foreign vessels, plucked at least 110 survivors, including the Cabags, from the dangerously shifting waters. They found at least three bodies from the M/V Maharlika II, which listed and sank at nightfall on Saturday, Red Cross aid worker Edward Barbero said.
Search and rescue efforts by air and sea continued yesterday because it was uncertain how many passengers and crew members were aboard the Maharlika, coast guard Captain Joseph Coyme said.
“There are discrepancies in the numbers and we cannot terminate the search and rescue until we’re sure that everybody has been accounted for,” Coyme said from Surigao city, where the survivors were taken.
As he spoke, an air force helicopter flew low overhead to start a search. Coast guard personnel could be heard using two-way radio to ask civilian ships leaving Surigao’s port to “help look for survivors, life vests” near the scene of the accident and along the coast.
The ferry encountered steering trouble off Southern Leyte province and was then battered by huge waves and fierce winds whipped up by a typhoon north of its path, Coyme said.
With clear weather in the central provinces south of the typhoon, the coast guard cleared the Maharlika to leave Surigao around noon on Saturday for a regular domestic run. The skipper sent the distress call a few hours later and several passengers used their cellphones to call for help when the ferry’s steering mechanism malfunctioned and fierce wind and big waves began to batter the vessel, Coyme and other coast guard officials said.
Frequent storms, badly maintained ships and weak enforcement of safety regulations have been blamed for past accidents at sea in the Philippines.
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