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MANILA : At least six people died and 20 were missing after a small inter-island ferry sank in waters south of the Philippine capital, the coast guard said on Sunday, the second sea disaster in three days.
The MV Baleno-9, carrying 88 passengers and crew, began listing and went down just before midnight near Batangas City, the coast guard said.
Ships in the area rescued 62 people. Six bodies were later recovered by the coast guard and 20 were still unaccounted for, a coast guard report said.
Passengers told the coast guard that the roll-on ferry began taking on water from the bow ramp.
This "severely affected the stability of the vessel causing her to badly list and eventually sink," the coast guard report said.
Search vessels and aircraft have been dispatched to find any more survivors in the area where the ferry went down.
"Hopefully, their flights will not be fruitless and they may find a few more of the missing," said coast guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo.
He noted that the ferry had sufficient life vests and life rafts and that this may have allowed more of those on board to survive.
Coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said it was still unclear why the ship apparently began to take on water.
"It did not hit anything. Our first finding is it ran into huge waves. This would have put pressure on the (bow) ramp but we still have to get more details. We are getting accounts from the survivors," he told local radio.
Coast guard officials said the captain of the sunken ferry had been rescued and interviewed by marine investigators, but no details were released.
Sunday's disaster comes barely three days after a wooden passenger boat, Catalyn B, was hit by a fishing vessel and sank near Manila, leaving four dead and 23 missing.
The coast guard recalled staff who were on leave to carry out the two search and rescue operations, Balilo told AFP, adding that no more survivors from Thursday's sinking had been found.
"Our suspicion is growing that they were trapped inside the ship," which sank in seconds according to survivors' accounts, he said.
A special diving team was searching for bodies inside the Catalyn B, he added.
Shipping accidents are common in the Philippines and usually involve poorly maintained, overloaded ferries which form the backbone of travel between the archipelago's islands.
Ferry passenger numbers usually surge over the Christmas period with many people travelling home to visit relatives.
Head of the government's Maritime Industry Authority, Maria Elena Bautista, complained that government agencies did not have enough power to crack down on erring shipping companies.
Under existing laws, ship captains, rather than ship owners, are liable for any deaths on their vessels, she said.
It is also common practice for ship owners to simply change the names of their ships or even their shipping companies after they have accidents.
A bill which strengthens government regulation of the shipping industry and increases the responsibility of ship owners has been stalled in the legislature for two years, Bautista said.
"Nobody should die because of the neglect by ship owners or their crew," she said.
The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in December 1987 when a ferry carrying Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people. - AFP/ir/ms
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