Rescuers search for survivors of Cavite ferry sinking

MANILA, Philippines - Rescuers combed waters off Limbones Island in Cavite
on Christmas Day for at least 23 people missing after a ferry smashed into a
trawler in an accident that called the crew's competence into question.
The
Coast Guard said it planned to spend 10 days searching for survivors and would
also look into the fitness and discipline of the crew involved in the crash,
which topped off a year of deadly disasters for the struggling nation.
The
79-ton Catalyn B, a flimsy, wooden vessel taking holidaymakers to their home
village on a small island off the mouth of Manila Bay, smashed into 369-ton
Anathalia, a metal-hulled fishing boat, killing at least four
people.
Officials are hoping that at least some of the other passengers and
crew may have survived and are afloat in tropical waters, in what is usually the
calmest period of the year.
"I would say that we should stay there for about
10 days and then find out if we can be successful in (finding) the remaining
unaccounted passengers," Coast Guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said after
dispatching patrol craft and aircraft to the site.
He told ABS-CBN television
that the weather was clear and the seas were calm around the accident site.
Rescuers expect these conditions to continue, he said.
Forty-six survivors
were fished out of the water on Thursday, along with four bodies.
However
some survivors warned that some of the missing could have been trapped inside
the vessel, which the Coast Guard said sank in 67 meters (220 feet) of water
within minutes of impact.
"Usually people can survive afloat for two to three
days in Philippine waters," Ensign Jhoe Barbasa, a Coast Guard spokeswoman told
AFP.
"But other factors also play a big role. Hunger, injuries or ailments,
like hypertension, and the weather, can affect that window," she added.
Since
there were no reports of engine trouble or bad weather during the predawn
collision, Tamayo said that "obviously" someone failed to observe nautical rules
on rights of way, leading to the disaster.
"We're also looking at conditions
of the watch at the navigating bridge -- whether the crew or the captain are in
good physical condition, whether they (were) drunk or tired or maybe they were
not awake at that time."
A formal inquiry will start "maybe in three or four
days", he said.
The fishing boat has been impounded, Barbasa added.
"We
started listing within two minutes of the collision," said 27-year-old survivor
Erwin Broncano.
"There was no warning. There was no order to abandon ship. I
ran upstairs to rouse the other passengers there. I grabbed a life jacket and
did not even have time to tie it properly before I jumped out," he told local
radio.
"The wind was up and there was a strong current, but the skies were
clear," said Broncano, whose two female cousins and a niece are among the
missing.
Ferries form the backbone of mass transport in the archipelago
nation of 92 million people. But bad weather, poor maintenance, overcrowding and
lax enforcement of regulations have led to frequent disasters.
The world's
deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in 1987 when a
ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker,
killing more than 4,000 people.
A series of tragedies have struck the
Philippines in recent months, including two tropical storms that claimed more
than 1,000 lives in September and October and an election-linked massacre of 57
people last month.