Death toll in Quezon sea mishap rises to 11, fuel leakage detected at sea

By Ronron
July 13, 2007

The number of dead persons in last Thursday’s sea mishap off Quezon province involving a roll-on roll-off (roro) vessel rose to 11 with the discovery yesterday of more cadavers floating at sea.

The fatalities include at least three of the 23 crew members of MV Blue Water Princess that ran aground before dawn of Thursday some 500 meters away from the shoreline of Barangay Pagsangahan in San Francisco town, Quezon, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.

Based on the PCG’s list, five more persons are missing while 126 persons were rescued.

Office of Civil Defense Region IV-A (Calabarzon) Director Vicente Tomazar said they are not yet discounting the possibility that some people could still be trapped inside the ill-fated vessel because it has yet to be penetrated by search and rescue teams.

The MV Blue Water Princess was sailing for Masbate coming from Lucena City in Quezon when it was hit with big waves at around 3am Thursday, causing it to tilt to the right side. The vessel, however, failed to regain its balance as the 14 trucks aboard it also slid to the right side of the vessel. This caused the vessel to hit a rocky base of the sea and there it was stuck.

The passengers panicked during the incident and jumped off the ship. The survivors managed to swim to the shore of San Francisco, while the unfortunate ones died due to the strong current that drowned them and slammed them to the rocks under the sea.

Attempts to look into the vessel yesterday were futile because of the strong winds and the big waves.

Arnie Santiago, lead investigator from the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), said in a radio interview yesterday that oil streaks were already found at the shores of San Francisco town.

Santiago said it could have come from the ill-fated vessel.

“There are leaked oils found on the sea. So there is a possibility that oils may have already leaked from the vessel,” Santiago said in Filipino.

The PCG said in a statement yesterday that BRP Pampanga and PCG Motor Tugboats were already placed on standby status for possible search and rescue augmentation and oil spill contingency measure and response.

The Special Board of Marine Inquiry has yet to convene to investigate the incident.

Earlier, the PCG spokesman said the incident could not yet be blamed solely to bad weather since the judgement of the ship crew, especially the captain, during said incident needs to be looked into as well./DMS