Blue Water captain admits negligence

The skipper of the ill-fated MV Blue Water Princess admitted negligence on his part while maintaining the sinking of the passenger cargo ferry that killed 11 people last July 11 was an accident.

Virgilio Retardo told the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) yesterday that he allowed passengers to board the roll-on, roll-off (RORO) ferry even if they were not listed in the ship’s manifest.

Retardo also admitted his crew merely used nylon cords which were not enough to hold the heavy cargo which rolled to one side of the ship when it was buffeted by big waves.

“Yes, I take responsibility for these lapses,” Retardo said.

“But what really happened that day was not my fault. We were met by huge waves – the biggest I have seen in my career as captain since 1985,” said the 61-year-old ship captain on the first day of the BMI hearing on the sinking of the ferry.

During the hearing, Retardo recalled details and incidents before the ferry ran aground near the coastal town of San Francisco in Quezon and sank last July 11.

He began by admitting the number of passengers in the manifest was way below the actual number of people aboard the vessel when it set sail.

The ship manifest showed the ferry only had 28 passengers. But in the search and rescue operations of the Coast Guard following the incident, 11 people were found dead and 124 others were rescued.

“When we sought clearance from Coast Guard at 4 p.m., there were just 28 passengers. And then before we left at 5:30 p.m., busloads of passengers going to Masbate arrived and went on board. It’s just that we couldn’t revise the manifest anymore because the Coast Guard men were gone already. I know I am responsible for that,” Retardo said in Filipino.

Retardo vowed to be stricter next time in enforcing the rules on passenger limitations.

“Next time, we will be stricter in boarding passengers. Hindi na ako papayag. We will count them three times before submitting documents to Coast Guard,” he said.

The Coast Guard’s Southern Tagalog District commander Capt. Rodolfo Isorena, head of the BMI panel, stressed the declaration of the number of passengers is crucial in the shipping industry.

Isorena said the ship’s manifest is used as basis by search and rescue teams in their operations during sea accidents.

On the issue of rolling cargo, Retardo said his crew members make sure that these are properly positioned on the vessel’s car deck.

“For example, if we put a six-wheeler truck in the left end we will look for equally sized cargo for the right side. This is why it really takes us some time to load cargo,” he explained.

Retardo added they even put sandbags around the wheels of the vehicles for further stability.

But his admission of using nylon cord one-and-a-half-inch thick to lash all 14 trucks to the car deck’s ceiling caught the attention of members of the BMI panel.

Commodore Benjamin Mata, who presided over the questioning of Retardo, said nylon cords are “too weak” to hold the rolling cargo.

“I was also captain of a cargo ferry and when you used nylon in cargo, bibigay ’yan (it will weaken under stress),” he explained.

Isorena said they are still considering that “improper lashing” caused the cargo to shift and eventually contributed to the sinking of the ferry.

“Apparently, the ship immediately tilted to its portside after its hull was broken when it ran aground. We are still determining if the cargo was properly balanced,” he said.

Retardo recalled sailing from the port of Lucena at around 5:30 p.m. last July 11 in fine weather. He recalled the sky was clear and the sea was calm when they set sail.

“When we reached Marinduque at 9 p.m., everything was still fine. But (the) wind became stronger after that. At around 11 p.m., the waves were getting bigger and the ship was already swaying so I decided to change course by 10 degrees south.

The (waves) were almost 10 feet high,” he said. The panel agreed with Retardo on his decision to maneuver the ship to safety under the circumstances.

Isorena said the intention of Retardo was to save lives in maneuvering the ship toward the shoreline.

Coast Guard Commandant Damian Carlos earlier ordered BMI to speed up investigation on the sinking of the MV Blue Water Princess. He has directed the panel to submit its report not later than the third week of August.

The Blue Water Princess, owned by AC-Joy Express Liner and operated by Blue Magic Ferries, sank off Quezon province last July 12. The roll-on, roll-off ferry reportedly left Port of Lucena on Wednesday afternoon en route to Masbate, but ran aground at around 3 a.m. the next day after it encountered strong winds and huge waves.

Rescue teams ended their bid to search and retrieve more bodies inside the sunken ferry after four days of underwater retrieval operations.

Investigators discounted the possibility of overloading since the ferry had a capacity of 256 passengers.