Six passengers died and at last 22 others were missing in the second sea disaster in three days off the province of Batangas, officials said Sunday. Search teams rescued at least 60 passengers and crew of a ferry, MV Baleno-9, which sank off Batangas province and were scouring the seas for others still unaccounted for, a coast guard report said. Navy spokesman, Lt. Colonel Edgard Arevalo, said the ferry sank near Isla Verde while on its way to Batangas City from Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental Saturday night. The latest sea tragedy came after a Christmas Day collision between a ferry and a fishing boat off the neighboring Cavite province in which 24 were missing and feared dead and three bodies had been found by Sunday. Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo quoted survivors from the latest accident as saying the ship took in water from the bow ramp, causing it to list before going under near Verde Island off Batangas province, south of Manila. Tamayo said the bodies of three children were among the six corpses recovered from the ferry locally known as roro for roll-on and roll-off.. There were conflicting counts in the number of missing people. The Philippine National Red Cross said 32 remained missing, while the coast guard said 22. Officials earlier said 63 of the 88 people on board had been rescued, but some names were later found to have been listed twice, said Genalyn Nardo of the coast guard office in Oriental Mindoro province's Calapan city, from where the ferry set sail. Many passengers of the ill-fated ferry had no time to put on life vests when the ship started to list and sink Saturday night, said Radio DZBB which had interviewed early Sunday some survivors who were taken to the port of Batangas City. The report quoted the passengers as saying they heard a loud thud and felt the ship listing. They said everything happened so fast they had no time to think of putting on life vests. Survivor Eryss Glenn Musni, 14, said he and his family were on their way home to Pampanga province after spending Christmas with his grandparents in Iloilo City when the accident happened. He said he became separated from his parents, five siblings and three other relatives when the ship tilted and panicked passengers rushed to jump off, many unable to get life vests. “Everyone rushed to get out. Some pulled other people, and in the water, some grabbed other people so they would not drown,” he told the Associated Press, adding that he and two strangers clung to a life preserver for an hour before they were rescued. He said his mother and sister remained missing but other family members had been rescued. The crew may have neglected to inspect the ship's doors before setting sail and some may have been left open, said Elena Bautista, head of the Maritime Industry Authority. Officials said the ship had a capacity of 284 passengers and was not overloaded. Transport and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza ordered the immediate suspension of operations of the ferry's owner, Besta Shipping Lines. On Christmas Eve, a wooden-hulled ferry with 73 people on board collided with a fishing vessel near the mouth of Manila Bay. Twenty-four people remain missing, 46 were rescued and three died in what officials say was an accident likely caused by human error. Coast guard officials said they feared most of those missing were dead, but they held out hope some may have drifted to nearby shores.
