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Thursday, March 04, 2004
WG&A denies recovery of 4 bodies
THE fate of 140 missing passengers of WG&A's Superferry 14 that caught fire on Feb. 27 shortly after leaving Manila for Bacolod City remains uncertain.
But hope still springs eternal as professional divers are helping out in scouring the seawaters in search for the other missing passengers, alive or dead.
As of latest count, of the missing persons, 67 are confirmed bound for Bacolod City, while the rest are bound for Cagayan de Oro City and Iloilo.
On Tuesday, the management of the WG&A tagged as hearsay and baseless reports of the recovery of four bodies.
In a press statement, Gina Virtusio, WG&A PR and Corporate Communications manager, said no body was recovered somewhere in Bataan or anywhere else for that matter.
Virtusio also denied reports their company had hired funeral cars to fetch the alleged recovered bodies from the ill-fated ship.
She said they checked and confirmed that the management of Funeraria Popular admitted it sent the funeral car on its own.
"We believe this action by the owner was very irresponsible and we apologize for the unnecessary agitation this has caused to some of the grieving relatives of the missing passengers," Virtusio explained.
She also belied reports that some of the bodies have already been packed in refrigerated containers or reefer vans.
As to the missing luggage, Virtusio assured the passengers and their relatives that they are rechecking all information that some luggage may have been recovered.
"We will give accurate information as soon as possible," she said.
Moreover, Virtusio denied that other survivors were rescued recently by the Philippine Coast Guard.
Neither PCG nor WG&A are holding any survivor, she stressed, adding that all the survivors that have been accounted for were properly listed.
As to the financial responsibility, Virtusio stressed that WG&A, being a publicly listed company, will assume fully all responsibilities to all the passenger-victims, both rescued and those unaccounted for and even the one confirmed dead.
"We will not hide from this responsibility," she further stressed.
Professional divers
WG&A, Virtusio disclosed, has arranged for a team of professional salvage divers to assist the PCG in the inspection of the remaining areas of the ship and assess the best way to remove the debris.
The team, she added, was mobilized starting Tuesday morning and started their diving mission at 2 p.m.
PCG is still the lead agency in the rescue operations, Virtusio clarified.
As of press time, at least 70 percent of the ship has already been penetrated while the remaining 30 percent probably will be entered later, she said.
Massive amount of debris on the starboard (right side) caused delay of the rescue, the report said.
Virtusio also denied allegation that they refused to open a hole on the port (left side) because they want to hide the dead passengers trapped inside.
"Divers have already penetrated the ship even without the hole," she explained.
(March 3, 2004 issue)
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