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Divers struggled to get deep inside a stricken Philippine ferry
containing hundreds of bodies, as officials warned it may take a
month to recover all the corpses.
With just 15 bodies pulled out so far, concern
is growing over the slow pace of recovery efforts, five days after
the MV Princess of the Stars went down in central Philippines in a
typhoon.
Some 100 American and Filipino divers have been
able to get into the ship but have been unable to reach dozens of
bodies because the vessel’s passages are blocked by debris,
preventing them from getting anywhere near the cabins.
They want to make a large hole in the hull to
remove the debris, but there are fears the ferry could tip over,
while poor visibility and strong undercurrents have also hampered
the operation.
“It will take a month to retrieve all the
bodies,” said Coast Guard spokesman Jansen Benjamin.
“Divers have sighted many bodies but have not
been able to retrieve them as the entrances and exits are blocked.
Some of the cadavers are tangled in wire,” Benjamin added.
The 23,000-ton ferry capsized with about 800
feared dead. Just 57 survivors have been found out of more than 850
passengers and crew, making it one of the country’s worst maritime
disasters.
The Philippine National Red Cross also on
Thursday said it has identified 56 survivors.
Philippine Navy records show that 15 bodies have
been recovered from the interior of the submerged ferry, while
another 127 have been plucked from the waters off Sibuyan Island or
washed up on nearby beaches.
US and Philippine surveillance planes have
reported seeing more bodies floating in the sea but the Navy and the
Coast Guard, which operate limited and decrepit fleets, are not
always able to pick them up.
More bodies sighted
Philippine Navy spokesman Edgardo Arevalo said
Wednesday that a US P-3 Orion aircraft spotted a group of bodies
grouped together on one island, but when the boats arrived at the
scene, the corpses had drifted apart.
“Retrieval isn’t that quick. You have to be
realistic. You have to pick up one after the other. We are picking
up the dead and the bodies are already falling apart,” he
explained.
Arevalo said they were hampered by a lack of
equipment, including a shortage of body bags.
“They dropped some bags by helicopter, but
they weren’t enough. We still have additional requests for lime,
formaline, hand gloves and face masks,” he added.
Frogmen will use tools to break open doors and
windows, but officials said it is too dangerous to cut holes in the
ship’s side as it may make the vessel shift and cause it to leak
oil, causing major environmental problems.
Reports say the ferry could be carrying up to
25,000 liters of oil.
Grief turns to anger
The tragedy has triggered outrage with President
Gloria Arroyo personally reprimanding ferry operator Sulpicio Lines
and the coast guard.
Grief-stricken relatives of those missing have
also condemned Sulpicio Lines and the authorities for the failure to
retrieve bodies quicker.
One angry relative also on Wednesday climbed up
the communications tower at Sulpicio Lines’ Manila office to voice
relatives’ “anguish” at the slow pace of the recovery efforts.
A team of volunteer psychologists from the
church-run University of Santo Tomas have been sent to the Manila
port area to attempt to calm the relatives who have camped out in
front of the Sulpico Lines office waiting for news of their loved
ones, church officials said.
The recovered bodies are being taken to the
central island of Cebu where they will be identified through DNA
before being handed to their relatives.
Civil defense officials have appealed to
residents of central islands to inform them of any bodies that might
be washed up and asked them not to bury them, even if they are in an
advanced state of decomposition.
-- AFP
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