An overcrowded ferry with more than 100 passengers capsized after being battered by big waves in the northeastern Philippines, drowning at least 23 people and leaving 33 missing, officials said Monday, AP reported. The wooden-hulled ferry, Maejan, was approaching its destination in Aparri town in Cagayan province after an eight-hour journey from Calayan islands in the Luzon Strait when it overturned near the mouth of the Cagayan River on Sunday evening, said Senior Inspector Alex de los Santos. He said passengers jumped into the cold water after strong waves broke the ferry's bamboo outrigger, causing it to bob wildly. «They panicked and grabbed anything like water containers that will keep them afloat then jumped off the boat,» de los Santos told The Associated Press by telephone. He said most of the 46 survivors swam to shore in Aparri, about half a mile (kilometer) away, where police and villagers found them shivering close to midnight. The dead _ including a 1-year-old boy and a town councilor _ were taken to funeral parlors, where relatives gathered to identify them. He said no one recognized the dead boy. «There were no relatives. Most probably his parents perished with him.» De los Santos said coast guard and navy vessels joined the search for 33 people still missing, but bad weather was hampering the effort. Coast guard chief Vice Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said criminal charges will be filed against the owner and surviving crew members of the 28-ton Maejan, which was authorized to carry only 50 people.
