A passenger boat that capsized during a storm, drowning 11 people just 200m offshore, left a port in the central Philippines without clearance, the coast guard said yesterday.
Half an hour into a short journey on Thursday afternoon, the engine failed, then strong winds and high waves caused the boat to break up and overturn, within the sight of its destination at Bagongon islet, the coast guard said in a statement.
Eleven people died and rescuers pulled out 30 survivors, while three remained missing, the statement said.
Search and rescue operations resumed early yesterday after the storm cleared, and a notice was sent out to all vessels in the area to be on the lookout for survivors.
The coast guard said the motorized outrigger left Concepcion Feeder port in Iloilo Province on Thursday ignoring a ban on sailing imposed because of the approaching storm.
Raul Banas, former mayor of Concepcion, said the boat normally carries 30 passengers. Commercial vessels are often overloaded.
Captain Eduardo Fabricante, coast guard chief of Iloilo city, said earlier that the boat’s operator may have not received the storm warning in time.
An investigation was under way.
The tropical depression that battered the Visayas region with winds of 55kph and gusts of up to 70kph moved on to the South China Sea yesterday.
It was forecast to make landfall in Vietnam this weekend.
The same storm earlier forced the suspension of a search for eight people still missing from Tuesday’s ferry accident off Masbate island, northeast of Iloilo, in which at least 42 drowned.
There were 100 survivors and the captain was detained on charges of operating the crowded vessel illegally.
He has denied the charges.
Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker, killing more than 4,341 people in the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.
In June, the 23,800-tonne Princess of the Stars ferry overturned during a typhoon close to Romblon Province, near Masbate, killing more than 800 people on board.
The discovery of several drums of toxic chemicals held up the retrieval of bodies inside the Princess of the Stars until several weeks ago.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to