Over 100 missing in Philippine ferry tragedy

Over 100 missing in Philippine ferry tragedy

CEBU, Philippines (Agencies): Three people were killed and
over 100 are missing after a Philippine ferry caught fire at sea
in the latest tragedy to hit a country with a long record of
maritime disasters, officials said on Sunday.

MV Rosario II sent out a distress signal hours after leaving
the port of Cebu early Saturday for nearby Masbate province,
Commander Clinio Yalaw, duty officer at coastguard headquarters
in Manila said.

The ferry, owned by Lapu-Lapu Shipping Lines, was four
nautical miles off the shores of Cataingan pier in Masbate when
its engine was reported to have caught fire, causing panic among
the boat's 210 passengers and 28 crew members, many of whom
jumped into sea without life jackets, Yalaw said.

The 236-ton ferry, bought from Japan five years ago.

Passengers Maximo Bulon, Aniano Tumangan and Nonito Abacador
drowned while 73 survivors, including seven crew members, were
rescued by the coastguard, Yalaw said.

"We believe many others survived because we are getting
reports that volunteers have rescued people and taken them to
nearby coastal areas," deputy Masbate coastguard commander
Ronaldo Botin told Reuters.

"These survivors were not on our list because they went
straight home. Our people are now going from one village to
another to check how many they are," Botin said.

"We saw smoke coming from the engine room, then the lights
went out. People started jumping overboard," a passenger said.

The Philippines' sorry maritime record includes the death of
more than 4,000 people in December 1987 when the ferry Dona Paz
and an oil tanker collided near Manila in the world's worst
peacetime sea disaster.

Despite the frequency of disasters, ferries remain the most
popular means of long-haul transport in this largely impoverished
archipelago of more than 7,000 islands because fares are cheaper
than air travel.

Overloading and frequent typhoons -- an average of 20 hit the
country every year -- heighten the perils of sea travel in a
nation where about 5,000 passenger and cargo boats criss-cross
the islands every day.

The government has launched a program to upgrade the industry
but over-age vessels continue to ply Philippine waters, Botin
said.

Typhoon Olga, with winds of 120 kilometer-per-hour near its
center, was raging in the north of the country on Saturday but
the coastguard said the waters off Masbate were only slightly
choppy when tragedy hit the Rosalia II.

Botin said the coastguard did not know what caused the fire
and was investigating.

Last year, 51 people died when the Princess of the Orient
ferry sank off the shore of Manila while in 1996, 50 people died
in the sinking of another ferry, Gretchen I also in the central
Philippines.

In December 1987 the ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil
tanker off the island of Mindoro, killing more 4,000 people in
what is described as the world's worst peacetime maritime
tragedy.