Divers reach ill-fated ferry’s pilot house, but find no bodies

SAN FRANCISCO, Quezon—Despite strong waves, elite Navy and civilian divers were able to break into the pilot house of the ill-fated MV Blue Water Princess, two days after it sank off the coast of this town Thursday.

No additional casualties were found.

At around 9 a.m., combat divers from the elite Navy Special Operations Group (NAVSOG), also known as Seals, as well as those from the Army’s 74th infantry battalion and volunteer divers were able to get close to the vessel to search for the remaining victims.

Unlike the other day, the weather was better yesterday, giving divers the opportunity to penetrate the roll-on-roll-off vessel in a bid to recover the remaining five passengers that are still reported missing as of press time.

But the real figures on the number of passengers are yet to be reconciled, as local divers said they saw many lifeless bodies floating inside the vessel when they first came to the rescue of the passengers.

San Francisco Mayor Ernani Tan told The STAR that divers would attempt to break into the passengers’ cabin of the sunken vessel today in the hope of finding the missing passengers.

“If they find nothing in the passengers’ cabin, we would close down the operations,” Tan said.

He said that this is because they were assured by owners of vehicles that were loaded into the ferry when it left Lucena for Masbate last Wednesday night, that nobody was inside the trucks while the ship was traveling.

“The owners of the vehicles assured us that nobody was in their trucks, so we don’t have any reason to look for people in the compartment where these vehicles were loaded into,” he said.

However, Col. William Campos, commander of the joint task force handling the incident, said that there could be more than five people that are yet to be recovered aside from 129 survivors that were accounted for and sent home Thursday night, and the 12 casualties.

He said there could be survivors sent home without being registered in their records, making it difficult as of press time to determine how many passengers were on board the ship.

“Maybe some went home without registering,” he said, adding that there could  also be more than five passengers that remained trapped inside the sunken vessel.

There were also accounts from local divers, who first came to respond to the incident, that they saw many floating bodies inside the ship.

But Tan said that yesterday’s attempt of the divers was done in order to verify if there were more passengers trapped inside the vessel, which ran aground after encountering strong waves some 27 kilometers off the coast of Barangay Pagsangahan in this town.

Lt. Col. Roderick Parayno, spokesman of the military’s southern Luzon Command said that authorities are also looking into reports that looting of passengers’ personal belongings is taking place.

“There could be divers from other areas that went near the ship to gather the personal belongings of the passengers. But we are still checking this,” he said.

Tan, however, said that there could be no looting of passengers’ belongings due to the presence of soldiers, policemen, and villagers who are cordoning off the area.

“The area is secured. There can be no looting there. The soldiers and policemen are on guard,” he said.