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Fel Gilig, 26, was among the lucky ones who survived the sinking of
the MV Princess of the Stars.
An apprentice engineer, Fel was able to get
aboard a rubber life raft that carried him and 29 others onto the
shores of Mulanay, Quezon, after 22 hours of drifting in
typhoon-tossed waters.
He survived the ordeal with a few scratches, a
partly amputated right thumb that he got when strong winds slammed
shut a door of the ship shortly before he jumped into the
unforgiving waters with the others, and haunting memories of the
hours when he didn’t know if he would live to tell the tale.
At least 30 other passengers were rescued from
not-so nearby islands from Sibuyan where the enormous interisland
ferry capsized as Typhoon Frank battered the country over the
weekend.
Fel said he and his companions—26 other men
and three women—survived on rainwater and thinking about their
loved ones, clinging on to hope that they would survive the ordeal.
Courses on survival craft that Fel and nine
other seafarers took helped their group weather the inclement
elements that, they insist, was why the Princess of the Stars went
down.
They sat side by side with their legs stretched
to maintain the lifeboat’s balance, using shoes as dippers to
empty the raft of rain and seawater collecting inside.
Not everyone in their group was lucky enough to
reach the shores of Mulanay, though.
Upon sight of the shore, two of their companions
took off their lifejackets to flag people on the beach. Some inched
from one end of the boat to the other, disturbing the rubber
raft’s delicate balance.
Then a huge wave slapped them from behind.
The raft overturned, leaving them at the mercy
of the ocean.
Those without lifejackets were swept away, one
against the rugged rocks while another back into the merciless ocean
deep.
Of the 30 souls in their group who survived the
sinking of the boat, only 28 washed to shore.
Minerva Toremocha, 29, looked triumphant, and at
the same time relieved, while recounting how they bested the
elements. Asked about her companions who were not so lucky, a shadow
swept over her face, sorry that they lost two.
They shouldn’t have taken off their life
vests, she mused.
The fate of over 700 other passengers of the MV
Princess remains unknown. Hopes remain that the others were washed
ashore.
There are worries that many more might have been
trapped in the bowels of the ferry, unable to climb the steps onto
the upper decks when she listed in an impossible angle shortly
before the captain told them to abandon ship.
The Navy was able to reach the ship. A team
tried knocking on the part of the hull protruding from the sea in
the hope that somebody from inside would knock back in reply.
Nothing.
The Navy is sending another team to cut the hull
open.
It’s only a matter of time now before
authorities call off the rescue mission and call a retrieval
mission, meaning they’ve given up hopes that there are still
people alive on the ship or that survivors remain floating in the
sea somewhere.
Maritime authorities are beginning to
investigate why the MV Princess of the Stars, with its size,
capsized.
There are theories that it encountered engine
trouble and smashed into the rocks.
Others insist that she was seaworthy as any
other ship but had been no match for the typhoon’s fury.
Still others believe that she shouldn’t have
sailed at all.
At least one of the survivors is blaming the
captain, who remains unaccounted for, because he advised them to
abandon ship too late.
If there is one lesson to be learned from this,
it is that it is possible to best the worst of odds. Do not give up
hope and do not stop fighting for your survival.
Hopefully, improvements on policy will help
ensure that tragedies like the sinking of the Princess do not happen
again.
My condolences to the families who lost their
loved ones. I am as sorry for the countless others who also lost
family members and/or property to Typhoon Frank.
johnnavg@hotmail.com
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