Post date: Aug 18, 2013 12:3:29 PM
Families of victims mourn the loss of their loved ones in a ferry sinking that killed at least 38 people in the Philippines.
CEBU ISLAND, PHILIPPINES ( AUGUST 18, 2013) (REUTERS) - More bodies have been recovered on Sunday (August 18) as the search for the 82 passengers still missing from a ferry disaster that killed at least 38 people continues, coastguard officials said.
The ferry sank on Friday (August 16) after a collision just outside the central port of Cebu with a cargo vessel owned by a company involved in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster nearly 30 years ago.Rescuers found several more bodies floating near the site of the incident as they continued scanning the area for possible survivors.
The bodies were later taken to a nearby funeral parlour for identification.
Factory worker Renato Diaz found his missing four year old son, Joshua, in one of the caskets after getting separated from him during Friday's chaos.
"We got separated even though we held hands during the stampede. I saw my wife being swept upstairs, while I was left on the ground. It just happened so fast, and the next moment the ferry sank," he said.
Diaz lost track of his son when he jumped off the ship a few minutes after the collision, thinking his son would follow him.
He waited at sea and called out for Joshua, hoping some of the passengers would hear him and throw his son back to him, but his call was unheeded, he said.
He later reunited with his family when he was taken taken to a coastguard outpost, but soon found out the fate of his four-year-old son,
Diaz said it was his first time riding a ferry to Manila, hoping to land a stable job together with his family.
The 40-year-old ferry was approaching Cebu late in the evening when it was struck by the departing cargo vessel, the Sulpicio Express 7, leaving two huge holes in the latter's bow. The ferry sank in minutes, about a kilometre off Cebu.
Transportation secretary Jun Abaya told reporters on Saturday (August 17) that President Benigno Aquino has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident and has formed a fact-finding body that will look into the cause of the collision and criminal liabilities of both ships.