LEGAZPI CITY—A MASBATE COAST guard station commander was relieved from office to make way for a fair investigation on the cause of the MB Don Dexter sea tragedy that killed at least 42 people, a Coast Guard official said Sunday.
Capt. Henry Caballero, Bicol Coast Guard commander, said Capt. Reynaldo Fabico, Masbate Coast Guard station commander, was temporarily relieved from office before the conduct of formal investigation.
The Special Board Marine inquiry will start today in Masbate City and is expected to delve on the alleged overloading of passengers and the sailing of the motorized boat without due notice to the Coast Guard.
Caballero said the boat captain, Dante Bombales, did not inform the Coast Guard detachment in Cataingan town before it left the port in Dimasalang town.
“We do not have a Coast Guard detachment in Dimasalang. The captain should have sent a radio message to the Coast Guard detachment in Cataingan, which is 30 kilometers away,” Caballero said.
The motor boat was ferrying passengers from Dimasalang to Bulan, Sorsogon when it capsized after a sudden squall struck it five kilometers off the shoreline.
Apprentice seaman Jecosalem Berces of PCG-Bicol said that as of Sunday, 42 were reported dead, 10 missing, and 105 survivors.
The official manifest registered 119 passengers but the Coast Guard list showed there were 156 aboard the ill-fated ferry.
Documents from the Maritime Industry Authority showed that the MB Don Dexter had a passenger capacity of only 100.
Two Coast Guard vessels are still perusing the seawaters of Dimasalang in search for missing corpses. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon (ATN)
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