Search for victims of Philippine ferry sinking to resume next week

Jun 29, 2008, 5:32 GMT

Manila - The suspended search for hundreds of bodies trapped in a sunken ferry in the Philippines will resume next week after a cargo of highly toxic pesticides is removed from the wreckage, an official said Sunday.

More than 630 people are still missing and feared trapped inside the capsized MV Princess of the Stars, while 173 others were confirmed killed and 56 survived the accident, which appears to be the country's worst ferry disaster in two decades.

Operations to retrieve bodies inside the submerged ferry were halted last Friday after it was discovered that the ship was carrying a cargo of 10 metric tons of endosulfan, a restricted pesticide that attacks the central nervous system of humans.

Transportation Undersecretary Elena Bautista said more than 100 divers recalled from the area were undergoing medical check-up in Manila and will rest in the capital until the shipment of endosulfan is retrieved.

'We want to target to get the cargo out by Wednesday at the latest,' she said. 'If we can get the job done Monday or Tuesday, so much the better.'

Bautista said a different set of divers will retrieve the cargo.

She said protective gear from Singapore and a barge with cutting equipment and a crane were on the way to Sibuyan Island, 300 kilometres south of Manila, near to where the ferry sank at the height of Typhoon Fengshen.

'We were very transparent with the divers,' she said. 'We told them there is the presence of a chemical but zero contamination so far. The timing is critical.'

Aside from the sinking of the Princess of the Stars, Fengshen also caused massive floodings, landslides and other sea accidents when it battered a wide area in the Philippines. It left at least 540 people dead with 41 still missing, on top of the ferry's toll.

The discovery of the hazardous shipment in the sunken vessel has highlighted the lax implementation of maritime safety regulations in the Philippines, where authorities noted that passenger ferries are prohibited from carrying toxic cargo such as endosulfan.

Sulpicio Lines, the owner of the sunken ferry, stressed that the controversial cargo had all necessary permits, but officials were enraged that the company did not reveal the dangerous shipment.

Sulpicio Lines' operations were suspended pending an investigation into the accident.

The Princess of the Stars was the fourth Sulpicio Lines ship to sink since 1987, when its passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker just before Christmas, killing 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime shipping disaster.