Woman dies, 75 rescued in boat sinking

An elderly woman died of an apparent heart attack and 75 people were rescued yesterday after a ferry sank in the waters off Batangas, the Coast Guard reported.

Meanwhile, disaster officials reported yesterday five more deaths from a week of typhoons and heavy monsoon rains, bringing the death toll in the country to 50.

The five were drowned or electrocuted on Friday in Pangasinan province, where heavy rain brought by "Typhoon Halong" flooded wide areas, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said. Another five people are missing.

The M/B Jupiter II, carrying about 70 passengers and six crewmen from a resort town in Oriental Mindoro to nearby Batangas, hit a floating piece of debris and began taking in water, Coast Guard spokesmen said.

A passing vessel, the M/V Starlight Pacific, rescued those aboard the stricken boat.

However, one of those rescued, a 60-year-old woman suffered a heart attack due to the shock and later died at Golden Gate General Hospital in Batangas City.

Superintendent Rolando Lorenzo, Batangas police chief, identified the lone casualty as Margaria Nicasio, of Batangas City.

Survivors said most of the passengers panicked and jumped into the water without life vests when the vessel began taking in water. Despite heavy seas, most of them were able to cling to the hull until help arrived.

The boat has a capacity of 70 passengers but some survivors said there were at least 100 on board. The Coast Guard is investigating.

The sinking took place in the same area where a motorized outrigger recently capsized due to bad weather, leaving three South Koreans dead and two others still missing.

On July 7, the M/B April Boy, carrying 23 South Koreans and three Filipino crewmen, left Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro for Batangas despite a Coast Guard ban on small craft putting out to sea due to high winds and heavy rain.

The boat was nearing its destination when a gust churned up a wave that flipped the boat over.

A passing vessel picked up all but two South Koreans, who remain missing and are feared dead. Authorities have filed criminal charges against the boat’s owner. The three crewmen, who disappeared upon reaching shore, are still being sought.

Landslides and flooding from four typhoons – Rammasun, Chata’an, Nakri and Halong – have killed around 100 people in the region as they churned through the Pacific past Micronesia, the Philippines, China, Korea and Japan.

Almost half of the deaths were from landslides on the remote Micronesian atoll of Chuuk, around 2,800 kilometers east of the Philippines.

The weather bureau said Halong was not expected to pass directly over the country. "We don’t expect it to directly hit the Philippines because it is moving northwest towards southern Japan," said meteorologist Leny Ruiz.

Halong, with winds gusting to 195 kph, was whirling in the Pacific around 1,400 kilometers northeast of Manila yesterday, the weather bureau said.

Forty-one people have been injured and nearly 10,000 people who fled their flooded homes remain in evacuation shelters, mostly public school buildings.

Heavy rains Friday night triggered floods and caused monstrous traffic jams in Metro Manila. Widespread flooding was also reported in Bulacan and Bataan provinces.

The storms have hit the country during the annual monsoon rains that hit the archipelago from May to September.

Emergency workers in boats and trucks rescued stranded commuters in Metro Manila and nearby provinces on Friday night, where floodwaters were up to six feet deep.

The rain had stopped in Metro Manila yesterday but skies remained overcast and more rain was forecast for the weekend.

NDCC executive director Melchor Rosales told a radio station he expected the number of evacuees in public shelters to rise. Damage to infrastructure, crops, livestock and property reached an estimated P369 million, the NDCC said. — With AFP, Jaime Laude