Ill-fated ferry docked at illegal port

By Ephraim Aguilar
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 17:55:00 11/13/2008
INQUIRER.net

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—The port in Dimasalang, Masbate from where the ill-fated MB Don Dexter Cathlyn left on November 4 before the tragedy that killed at least 43 was found out to be an illegal private port.

Conducting a separate and independent investigation on the Masbate ferry tragedy, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) found out that the Dimasalang port has been a private docking facility of the owner of Don Dexter Cathlyn.

Dante Jimenez, VACC chair, said that according to the locals of Dimasalang town, the port has not been licensed by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).

"We are writing to the PPA officials in Manila to ask them how this port in Dimasalang came about. Can private ports be easily established anywhere in the country?" Jimenez said by phone.

He said the VACC was also questioning why public utility vessels were allowed to operate in a private docking facility.

He said there was no Coast Guard detachment at the private port, which was, naturally, not subject to government control.

Jimenez added that if there were many other unlicensed private ports in the country, the government could be losing huge revenues.

He said the ports could also be venues for smuggling activities.

The ongoing Special Board of Marine Inquiry in Masbate City is delving mainly on the alleged overloading of passengers and the sailing of the boat without due notice to the Coast Guard.

Captain Henry Caballero, Bicol Coast Guard commander, said the boat captain, Dante Bombales, did not inform the Coast Guard detachment in Cataingan town before it left the port in Dimasalang town.

Cataingan is 30 kilometers away.

Lucita Madarang, Maritime Industry Authority director in Bicol, confirmed the VACC findings.

She said the PPA on Thursday furnished the Marina a copy of the cease and desist order issued to Gene Zuñiga, owner of the Dimasalang port and the Don Dexter Cathlyn.

The order disallowed operations of the private port, where five passenger vessels dock.

The PPA, in the document, said Zuñiga applied for a foreshore lease covering an area of 1,000 square meters for the establishment of a commercial port but it has not yet been approved.

The motorized boat was on its way from Dimasalang, Masbate, to Bulan, Sorsogon, when it was struck by a squall, which caused it to overturn and toss its passengers into the sea.

The official manifest registered 119 passengers but the Coast Guard list showed there were 156 aboard the ill-fated boat.

Marina documents showed it had a passenger capacity of only 100.

Madarang said that based on Marina's separate investigation, a total of 120 survivors signified claims on the financial aid extended by the

government on the tragedy victims.

If all the claimants are to be believed, this would mean 172 were aboard the motorboat.

"This is not to prejudice the ongoing inquiry. We will still validate these figures," Madarang said.

Rescuers have already retrieved 43 bodies, the latest of which was found floating on midsea.

The corpse was identified by relatives as that of Minda Velarmino, 54, of Barangay (Village) Cudolan in Dimasalang town, said Ensign Jeffrey Collado, operations officer of PCG-Bicol.

Two Coast Guard vessels are still perusing the seawaters of Dimasalang in search for bodies.

The Don Dexter Cathlyn sinking came just four months after that of Sulpicio Lines' MV Princess of the Stars off Romblon at the height of a typhoon last June 21, drowning about 800 passengers and crewmen.