Worsening weather and sea conditions yesterday forced the Philippines to suspend a search for survivors of a ferry disaster that killed at least 32 people and left 170 missing, authorities said.
The ferry sank on Friday after a collision just outside the central port of Cebu with a cargo vessel owned by a company involved in the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster nearly 30 years ago.
Divers will resume searching early today, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya told a news conference in Manila, after heavy rain brought by a typhoon and low pressure had reduced visibility at sea almost to zero.
“Diving operations stopped because of weather conditions,” Abaya said, adding that 661 of the 831 passengers and crew on the ferry had been accounted for. With 32 dead and 629 rescued, there are 170 missing. Just 17 of the dead have been identified.
“But we’ve got information that some bodies have been recovered, and we expect the number of missing to decrease, and we expect the casualties to increase.”
Many of the survivors were sick from swallowing oil and seawater, disaster officials said.
The ferry sank within 10 minutes
Scores, sometimes hundreds, of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands with a poor record for maritime safety. Overcrowding is common, and many of the vessels are in bad condition.
The 40-year-old ferry was approaching Cebu late in the evening when it was struck by the departing cargo vessel, the Sulpicio Express 7, leaving two huge holes in the latter’s bow. The ferry sank in minutes, about a kilometre off Cebu.
Small planes and helicopters also scoured the waters and coastal areas of Cebu island for survivors, officials said.
Divers found four bodies outside the sunken ferry hours before the search was halted, said Commander Noel Escalana, a naval operations officer.
“During the dive, they saw bodies from the windows,” he told reporters, saying the divers did not attempt to retrieve them. “It’s dangerous to enter the ship... Because they need special equipment and extra oxygen tanks.”
Escalana added that rescuers had no idea how many people were trapped inside the ship, lying on a seabed around 46 metres below sea level.
Fourteen bodies had been found in the town of Talisay, south of Cebu City, said Imelda Sabillano, another local official.