A ferry carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized off the central Philippines in heavy waves yesterday, killing at least 35 people, but the majority of those on board were rescued, the nation’s coast guard and police said.
The MBCA Kim-Nirvana, a motorized outrigger with 173 passengers and 16 crew on board, capsized minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc in Leyte province.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 134 people survived, while 20 were listed as missing.
Photo: Reuters
“Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Initially we learned that it was due to big waves,” said Rey Gozon, director of the office of civil defense for the region.
Scores, sometimes hundreds, of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,100 islands with a notoriously poor record for maritime safety. Overcrowding is common, and many of the vessels are in bad condition.
Passenger May Sopa told CNN Philippines that when she hit the water, other panicking passengers pushed her down, before a man holding on to a water container rescued her.
“I told him: ‘Please save me,’” Sopa said, adding that they bobbed on the water and tried to paddle ashore.
Two other women and a boy about 10 years old also latched on to the same water container.
Television pictures showed orange rubber boats and white coast guard vessels bringing survivors ashore, including at least one toddler and some on stretchers, with the half-submerged ferry visible offshore.
Balilo said authorities were looking at various possible causes, including human error and bad weather.
“There was an occasional swell, but the sea condition was manageable. Some motorized outriggers were able to sail,” he told a local TV news channel.
“There was no gale warning and while there was a tropical depression, it was far from the area of the accident,” he said.
Authorities took the captain and some crew members of the 33-tonne boat into custody, Balilo said, adding that a formal investigation would be conducted as soon as search-and-rescue operations were concluded.
Eli Borinaga, the vice mayor of Pilar town on an island to the south who had hoped to join the ferry, but did not make it on time, told a local radio station that there was only light rain at the time of the accident.
Borinaga cited a witness at Ormoc port who saw the boat make a sharp turn just before it capsized.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS