Woman’s body recovered from sunken ferry in Cebu

MANILA, Philippines - The body of a woman was recovered by a team of divers from the sunken M/V St. Thomas Aquinas in Cebu yesterday morning.

Cmdr. Armand Balilo, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman, said the latest recovery was made by a team of PCG, Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police, and civilian technical divers who has been scouring the area where the passenger ship capsized after it collided with the cargo ship M/V Sulpicio Express Siete last Aug. 16 off Talisay City.

As of press time, the recovery brought the official death toll to 98, with 39 others still missing.

“There is also another dive conducted this afternoon, it’s ongoing, but we have not heard anything yet if there was another recovery,” Balilo told The STAR.

This developed as Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III called yesterday for a Senate inquiry into the sea collision.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 206, Pimentel said the Senate inquiry hopes to bring about changes in the country’s maritime laws to address the problems causing ship collisions.

Pimentel cited the need to put in more safety measures under the law to prevent maritime disasters. 

Aside from the loss of lives and property, Pimentel said the Cebu accident has caused untold and incalculable ecological sea damage because more than 20,000 liters of diesel fuel, 120,000 liters of bunker fuel and 20,000 liters of lube oil had leaked from the sunken ferry.

Pimentel said he would push for an extensive review of the protocols and procedures used by vessels amid reports that the collision of the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas with the cargo vessel M/V Sulpicio Express Siete might have been caused by human error. Both vessels were earlier declared seaworthy to sail in clear weather.

He said there also is a need to check on the capabilities of the ship captains involved in the mishap so that government agencies like the Maritime Industry Authority and the PCG could introduce and adopt new measures to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

– With Christina Mendez