Bid to save ferry disaster victims

“Many have had to turn around and go back to port, and we are getting more and more reports of smaller vessels also running aground across the Philippines islands.”

 

Bodies washed ashore

 

One rescue vessel sent to the area was forced to return to Batangas city because of big waves, commander Antonio Cuasito, the Cebu coastguard spokesman, said.

 

Armand Balilo, a coastguard spokesman, said the death toll could be high, adding “I’m still hopeful for survivors”.

 

Nanette Tansingco, the mayor of the coastal town of San Fernando in Romblon province, told Al Jazeera the boat had submerged “with a hole in the hull” and three survivors had been found.

 

Eleandro Madrona, a local politician, said on local radio: “The ship sank three kilometres from the shoreline. We have only found four dead, no survivors.

 

“I would assume people started to transfer to rubber boats after the captain abandoned the ship.

 

She said villagers had reported only being able to see the bow of the ship.

 

‘Dead in the water’

 

 

The 22,000 tonne ferry was carrying 626 passengers and 121 crewmembers.

 

Vice admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the Philippines coast guard chief, said earlier that the boat was “dead in the water” after its engine failed around noon on Saturday near Sibuyan.

 

Filipinos used inflated tires and rafts to keep afloat [AFP]

The ferry’s owner Sulpicio Lines are reported to have lost radio contact with the ship.

 

At least 155 people are believed to have been killed across the region after Tyhoon Fengshen struck the day before, the Red Cross said.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave the worst-affected areas on Saturday as heavy rains from the typhoon lashed the archipelago.

 

Ten people drowned and five were missing after a river burst its banks in Maguindanao province.

 

In Cotabato City, a man and a child were buried in a landslide at a rubbish dump, police said, while five other people were drowned.

Thousands of residents in the city of Iloilo were left stranded on rooftops after a dam burst.

‘Worst-ever flooding’

Serg Biron, an Iloilo congressman, told DZBB radio said: “I have received a lot of text messages appealing for helicopters, there are many people trapped on the rooftops.

“This is the worst flooding  that has hit Iloilo in history.”

The National Power Corporation was forced to shut down its power plant in the area, triggering a blackout across the province, Nelson Hemona, the plant’s manager, said.

Fengshen, the sixth typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, tore up trees and power lines across wide swathes of the country. Flights were cancelled and ships kept in harbour.

The storm forced more than 200,000 people to seek temporary shelter in the eastern Bicol region, a civil defence office said.

Gloria Arroyo, the country’s president, ordered clean-up and rescue operations before leaving for an eight-day trip to the United States.

Government agencies were instructed to stockpile relief goods and state-run hospitals were put on alert.

Arroyo also ordered a crackdown on profiteers and hoarders of basic commodities, especially rice, in areas hit hard by the typhoon.