Death toll hits 50 in Philippines ferry accident

As the MV Thomas Aquinas cruised toward Cebu city in the central Philippines, navy marshal Richard Pestillos prepared for a brief stop while some passengers watched a band play and others soaked in the night breeze on the deck.
Then the scene turned chaotic when the ferry, with 870 passengers and crew, collided with a cargo ship late Friday, ripping a hole in the ferry's hull, knocking out its power and causing it to list before rapidly sinking as people screamed, according to Pestillos and other witnesses.
"The sea was very calm and we could already see the lights at the pier," Pestillos told The Associated Press yesterday by telephone.

"Then very suddenly ... There was a loud bang, then the grating sound of metal being peeled off," he said.
Coast guard officials said at least 50 died and 70 were missing in the deadly collision 570 kilometres south of Manila. Hampered by a thunderstorm and strong currents, divers temporarily halted their search today.
Frequent storms, badly maintained vessels and weak enforcement of safety regulations have been blamed for many past accidents at sea in the Phillipines, including in 1987 when the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker, killing more than 4,300 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said 750 passengers and crew of the Thomas Aquinas were rescued. There were no signs of additional survivors late yesterday, though Davide told reporters he had not given up hope.

Pestillos, one of several people praised for saving others in the accident, said he distributed life jackets and launched life rafts before creating his own flotation device by tying three life jackets to his navy service rifle.
As the ferry sank, Pestillos said he fell into water that reeked of oil and was hit by a falling life boat. He said he gave his homemade flotation device to a woman who needed it to stay afloat.

He said he lost sight of her when he went to help seven others, including two toddlers, toward an overturned life boat.
Pestillos said rescuers found his rifle still tied to the life jackets, but it was not clear what happened to the woman. "I'm really praying that she also made it to the shore alive," he said.
Cebu coast guard chief Commodore William Melad said records of hospitals, rescuers and the ferry owner indicate that 754 passengers and 116 crew were aboard the ferry when the accident occurred.