Rescue operations continue for capsized boat passengers (1:53 p.m.)
CEBU CITY — Rescue operations continue as relatives of passengers of the MV Princess of Stars, which capsized off the waters of Sibuyan Island in Romblon, swamped the Cebu City Coast Guard’s office, a DYAB radio report said.
Relatives have been waiting for the latest updates of the ferry carrying 740. But owners of the ship that ran aground Saturday afternoon refused to issue comments. They are waiting, DYAB said, for the official report of the Coast Guard. They can not also show the ship’s manifesto or list of passengers yet as the said manifesto is in their head office.
Coast guard chief Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said the MV Princess of Stars, owned by Cebu-based Sulpicio Lines, was “dead in the water” after its engine failed around noon Saturday near Sibuyan Island.
San Fernando Mayor Nanette Tansingco told dzMM that the rescue team saw Sulpicio Lines’ MV Princess of the Stars upside down with a hole in the middle. The ship was found two to three kilometers from the shoreline.
Nationwide, flashfloods and landslides killed 21 people, including 10 who drowned in a swollen river in South Upi, Maguindanao.
Rainy weather is on the forecast for Cebu Sunday, but all typhoon warning signals were lifted.
“Roads were destroyed, street posts were bent, and electric wires were left strewn all over. This is worse than (super typhoon) ‘Ruping’ (in 1990),” Medellin Mayor Ricardo Ramirez told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.
“Everybody was so scared,” he added.
Only Iloilo, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental remained under signal number one as of 10 p.m. Saturday.
Four others were under signal number two: Antique, Aklan, Capiz, and Sibuyan.
In Cebu, the typhoon displaced hundreds of families and damaged millions of pesos worth of infrastructure and agriculture in several towns. No specific estimates were available Saturday, as the assessment reports began to trickle down to the disaster councils.
4 killed
Medellin’s Mayor Ramirez confirmed that an old woman and her grandson were killed when a tree fell on their shanty in Barangay Kawit last Friday night.
In Bantayan, two persons were also killed when a tree landed on their house in Barangay Sellon.
Barangay Captain Crispin Allon said that Nanette Hibanada and her 11-month-old baby were sleeping past 10 p.m. last Friday when the accident occurred.
Four fishermen remained missing after their boat capsized off Barangay Mahawak, also in Medellin.
But Ramirez said they could not provide the names yet, pending the arrival of more information.
Ramirez voiced disappointment over the failure of the weather bureau to issue appropriate warnings to coastal towns.
Although the weather bureau placed northern Cebu under signal number two last Friday, the mayor said the winds were so powerful it felt like a signal number three typhoon.
Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Escario-Cañares said they could not yet determine the total number of affected families in her town as data-gathering was ongoing.
Found
John Mark Dico and Romel Dico were reportedly fishing in Cambangga Reef, Getafe, Bohol last Thursday. When they failed to return, Benjie and Gualberto Ocaba decided to borrow Masingin Barangay Captain Artemio Vergara’s pumpboat to search for them the next morning.
They also failed to return.
The four were found alive in Caubian Island, Sitio Dako, Lapu-Lapu City. (MEA/GMD/OCP/JST/AIV/Sun.Star Cebu/AP)
If there is a missing persons, and casualty list for the passengers of the MV Princess of Stars, I would like to know where I can find it. I am very concerned because I had a friend and her mother traveling to Cebu on a ferry, and she mentioned the typhoon.