RP officials sacked over sea disaster

RP officials sacked over sea disaster

MANILA (Reuter): Philippine President Fidel Ramos on Saturday sacked maritime officials after a ferry sank killing more than 50 passengers.

Ramos ordered the immediate relief of regional directors, port managers and station commanders of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Philippine Coast Guard, and Philippine Ports Authority, the presidential palace said in a statement.

"The President issued the order after the families of the victims...complained that personnel of the concerned agencies did not perform or failed to do their jobs," the statement said.

More than 50 people, mostly children, died when rough seas battered the overcrowded Gretchen-1 in the central Philippine island of Negros last Sunday.

The 75-tonne ferry had carried more than its permitted capacity of 100 passengers and 12 crew, investigators said.

The crew listed only 59 passengers on the manifest but there were more than 200 people on board. About 145 passengers survived the mishap. Two are missing and presumed dead.

The Philippine Coast guard had filed criminal charges against the ferry's captain and nine crew last Wednesday.

Ramos also ordered the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Department of National Defense to inspect all passenger boats plying domestic routes as a safety measure.

Sea disasters occur frequently in the Philippines where ferries, often old and rundown, are the main form of transport.

More than 3,000 people died in December, 1987 when the ferry Dona Paz sank after a collision with an oil tanker also in the central Philippines, in the world's worst peacetime sea disaster. Only 26 people survived that tragedy.