Thursday, July 03, 2008 (Philippines)

President Gloria Arroyo gives words of comfort to an unidentified woman, one among the scores of people waiting at the Cebu City Sports Center for news about family members listed as missing since the sinking of mv Princess of the Stars by typhoon Frank. The President visited Cebu yesterday. (Malacañang photo) MV Princess of the Stars will be refloated to retrieve bodies stuck inside the vessel, Transportation Undersecretary Maria Elena Bautista said yesterday. The process will stop efforts to recover bodies for up to three months. Amid anger at the slow-moving recovery operation, the government and ferry owners abandoned plans to bore a hole in the 24,000-ton vessel to pull out the bodies and agricultural chemicals that threaten the marine environment. A salvage outfit hired to execute the plan, as well as Filipino and US military divers, have left the site off Sibuyan Island, Bautista said. [full story]