The ferry that sank off Batangas province Saturday night was not designed to sail on open seas, officials said Tuesday. The MV Baleno 9, a second -hand vessel known locally as roro for roll-on-roll-off, was fitted for inland or bay use only, they said. “It was built in Japan in 1992, for bay use [or for] inland waters,” Coast Guard (PCG) chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo told a Senate hearing on the recent sea tragedies. On Christmas Eve, three people were killed while dozens went missing after another ferry, MV Catalyn B, collided with a fishing vessel off Limbones Island in Cavite province. Six people were confirmed dead in the recent incident – the second in less than a week – while 44 more remain missing up to Tuesday afternoon. Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) administrator Maria Elena Bautista said most of the roro vessels in the country are for inland-water use but allowed to sail on open seas after passing a certain standard. “These are second-hand vessels from Japan and they are really designed for inland waters but we classed them, and if they pass the class standards then they are allowed to sail. If we don't allow them, there will be no ships left in our country,” she said. Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the blue ribbon committee that conducted the hearing, said authorities had courted disaster when they allowed MV Baleno 9 to sail on open seas. Retired Captain Robert Garcia, a representative from the Department of Transportation and Communication, said the waters off Verde Island where the ill-fated passenger vessel sank “have very strong currents.” During the hearing, senators found out that MV Baleno 9 was manned by a major patron, a marine deck officer duly registered to act as master of a vessel. Gordon questioned why the vessel was manned by only a major patron and not a certified ship captain. Bautista said under international shipping rules, a major patron is allowed to man vessels weighing less than 500 tons. “It's based on the gross tons of ship and this is a worldwide practice,'' she said. Baleno 9 had a gross weight of 119 tons. The Marina administrator said that to correct their policies, they drafted an 18-chapter Maritime Code that is now pending before the Senate. She, however, said that this was now down to eight chapters due to strong lobbying by shipping companies. “There are a lot of very influential ship owners and they have lobbyists,” Bautista siad. “They have supporters in different political posts and it is very difficult as a bureaucrat to really push for what we really need,” she added. Also found out during the hearing was a big discrepancy between the number of passengers as listed in the manifest initially submitted to the Coast Guard, and the number of actual passengers. Lt. Algier Ricafrente, Coast Guard station commander in Calapan, Mindoro, said the manifest initially submitted to them showed Baleno 9 had 20 passengers and 18 crew when it left the pier around 9:18 P.M. Saturday. He said he received a supplemental manifest around 4 A.M. Sunday – or six hours after Baleno 9 sunk - stating that the vessel had 75 passengers. Tamayo, in an interview after the hearing, said it appears that Baleno had 123 passengers based on the actual headcount: six fatalities, 73 survivors, and 44 missing.
