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Ferry recovery called off because of pesticide leak

Philippine officials suspended recovery operations yesterday at a sunken ferry containing hundreds of dead bodies after learning it was carrying large amounts of highly toxic pesticide.

Government authorities threatened legal proceedings against the ferry’s operator, Sulpicio Lines, for not informing them of the insecticides inside a 12.2m shipping container.

Some 100 US and Filipino divers have been working at the site after the Princess of the Stars went down in a typhoon last Saturday carrying more than 850 people. Only 57 survivors have been found.

Sulpicio Lines has “a lot to answer for,” Philippine Vice President Noli de Castro, who is overseeing the recovery operation, said in a radio interview.

He said passenger ferries were not authorized to carry such chemicals.

The latest news is likely to complicate an operation whose slow pace was already causing mounting anger. As of Thursday, only 15 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage.

Officials identified the pesticide as “Endo Sulfan” which has been blamed for causing mental and genetic disorders, skin diseases and even cancer in rural communities in India, media reports said.

Pesticide

The pesticide, which was consigned to pineapple grower Del Monte, was supposed to have been carried in a cargo ship, said Norlito Vicana executive director of the fertilizer authority.

“They [Sulpicio] only told Del Monte on Wednesday in writing that the cargo had been switched to the passenger ship,” he told ABS-CBN.

“That was five days after the ferry sank ... this type of chemical is not allowed on board passenger ships,” he said.

Civil defense chief Anthony Golez said the insecticide was “highly toxic to people and to fish.”

“So far, there are still no detectible signs of Sulfan in the environment ... because there is no sign of fish-kill but the task force is calling off the search operations so we don’t endanger the lives of our divers,” Golez said.

Divers from the Philippine navy and coast guard as well as US navy frogmen have been retrieving bodies all week from the ship, which was carrying more than 850 people.

Coast guard commander Wilfredo Tamayo said one of his divers had complained of itchiness all over his body, although the cause was not clear.

“As of now, it [the retrieval operation] is temporarily suspended,” he said.

Retrieval

Authorities will now try to retrieve the container before it can leak, Golez said, adding that samples of water will be tested for contamination.

However, divers have struggled even to reach the bodies inside the 24,000-tonne ferry, whose exits and passage ways are blocked by debris.

Authorities are now pondering a risky operation to bore a hole in the side the ship, which is reporting to be carrying 250,000 liters of bunker oil and is balanced delicately on an underwater reef.

Media reports say the ship may have been carrying up to 40 containers, although it is not known what was inside.

Sulpicio Lines has had at least three other major accidents since 1987, when its Dona Paz vessel collided with an oil tanker, killing around 4,000 people in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.

The government suspended the company’s operations until further notice, while anti-corruption campaigners are planning a class action lawsuit. A board of inquiry is also conducting hearings on the company’s possible liability.
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