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| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
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World |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Nineteen
die in latest Philippine sea tragedy
TACLOBAN, Philippines, May 11 (Reuters) - At least nineteen people, many of them children, drowned in the Philippines on Saturday when a ferry capsized off the central province of Biliran, officials and witnesses said. They said the 13-gross tonne MV Melody was carrying 30 passengers when it sank while on its way to the island of Maripipi from Naval town. The other 11 people on board were missing. It was the latest sea disaster to hit the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands which has an appalling maritime safety record and where overcrowding on inter-island ferries is rife. Last month, 28 people died and more than 200 were rescued when the ferry MV Maria Carmela caught fire off Quezon province south of Manila. Rescuers had recovered the bodies of 19 people and the rest were missing in the wake of Saturday's sinking, provincial vice-governor Carlos Chan told local radio. "We are hoping and praying that there will no additional casualties," Chan said. Witnesses said most of the fatalities were young people, including children. The boat went over soon after leaving the port of Naval, about 500 km (310 miles) southeast of Manila, and many people at the pier saw it going down, witness Acol Gabiola told Reuters. Coast guard officials said search and rescue operations were underway for the missing. The coast guard said they were investigating the cause of the accident. In 1987, about 4,000 people were killed in a collision between the ferry Dona Paz and an oil tanker near Manila in the world's worst peacetime sea disaster. |
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