Two ships collide in Cebu waters; 24 dead, hundreds rescued

Earlier, Rear Admiral Luis Tuason said, "We don't know if there are still people missing."

Tuason cited a discrepancy between the actual numbers killed or rescued and the ferry's manifest, which he said showed 692 crew and passengers on board.

 

Tuason, the acting chief of the coast guard, said 690 people were rescued, but coast guard officials on Cebu island, the site of the accident, said only 575 people were brought ashore. They said officials had counted 17 bodies and that two coast guard vessels and a naval ship would continue to search for more survivors overnight.

 

The figures could not be immediately reconciled.

 

An earlier Reuters report said the 40-year-old ferry, St Thomas of Aquinas, is allowed to carry up to 904 passengers. It sank minutes after colliding with the cargo vessel about a kilometer (a half mile) off Cebu around 9 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Friday.

After sunrise, the 2Go Group, the operator of the sunken ship, said their vessel had 841 people on board consisting of 723 passengers and 118 crew and that they were authorized to carry 1010 people.

2Go also clarified that the MV St. Thomas Aquinas was not exactly Manila-bound when it collided with the cargo ship. "The vessel came from Surigao and Nasipit Port bound for Cebu as a stopover port and then to Manila. It was estimated to arrive Cebu at 10 p.m."

The shipping firm also gave the exact location of where its ship sank: the vicinity of Lawis Ledge off Talisay, Cebu. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council confirmed this location.

The NDRRMC also said the St. Thomas Aquinas was entering the area while Sulpicio Express was exiting.

Earlier information from the Philippine National Police in Central Visayas said the passenger ship sustained heavy damage on its starboard or right side.

Passengers recount ordeal

 

"It happened fast, we felt that the cargo ship hit us and minutes later we noticed our ship was listing," Aldrin Raman, a passenger, told reporters. "I grabbed a life vest and jumped overboard. I saw many passengers doing the same."

 

He said fishermen rescued him and several other passengers who had jumped into the sea. Local officials said dozens of fishing boats helped in the rescue.

 

One of the crew members on the ferry told radio the ship sank within 10 minutes of the collision.

 

"The collision left a gaping hole in the ferry and water started rushing in, so the captain ordered abandon ship," he said. Most of the passengers were already wearing life jackets before the ship sank, he said.

 

Another passenger, Jerwin Agudong, told the dzBB radio station that several people were however trapped and could not jump overboard. "It seems some were not able to get out. We saw dead bodies on the side," he said.

PHL history of tragic sea mishaps
 

Scores, sometimes hundreds, of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines, which has a notoriously poor record for maritime safety. An archipelago of 7,100 islands, ferries are the most common form of transportation.

 

Overcrowding is common, and many of the vessels are in bad condition. The country is also hit by several typhoons each year.

 

The Philippines was the site of the world's worst peacetime sea disaster in December 1987. The ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector in the Sibuyan Sea, killing 4,375 on the ferry and 11 of the Vector's 13-man crew.