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             34 Dead, Scores Missing in Philippines Ferry Collision

   by VOA News

   Rescue teams in the Philippines are struggling through rough seas in
   their search for scores of people still missing after a passenger ferry
   sank off the coast of Cebu province.
   Officials say 34 people are now confirmed dead with about 85 missing
   following the ferry's collision with a cargo ship late Friday.
   Authorities sharply reduced the number of missing Sunday.
   On Saturday, stormy weather forced divers to halt their search for
   people missing and believed still trapped on the ferry that came to
   rest more than 30 meters under water outside Cebu port. The search
   resumed early Sunday.
   The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collided with the 11,000-ton freighter
   Sulpicio Express 7 about two kilometers off shore, nearly 600
   kilometers southwest of Manila. The captain gave orders to abandon ship
   and many people strapped on life jackets, then jumped into the sea in
   the late night darkness. The 40-year-old ferry sank within minutes.
   Hundreds of the more than 800 passengers and crew members were pulled
   safely from the sea.
   The ferry passengers included scores of children and infants.
   On average, ferry accidents kill hundreds of people each year in the
   Philippines - an archipelago of 7,100 islands that has a notoriously
   poor record for maritime safety. The world's worst peacetime sea
   disaster was in the Philippines in 1987, when 4,375 passengers and crew
   aboard the ferry Dona Paz died after a collision with a freighter in
   the Sibuyan Sea. Only 26 people survived.
   Transportation Secretary Joseph Amilio Abaya said the Philippines'
   president has ordered investigators to look into the collision Friday
   night:
   "It is a fact-finding body. It will not determine liability, its
   primary purpose is to gather facts, to make sure that such an incident
   will never happen again. MARINA [Marine Industry Authority] will
   convene its own investigation. It will also determine liability as to
   personnel, criminal and likewise as to the CPCs [Certificate of Public
   Convenience] and to the franchises.''
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   pines-ferry-collision/1731919.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/thirty4-dead-scores-missing-in-philippines-ferry-collision/1731919.html