OVER BOAT SINKING

Masbate Coast Guard chief relieved
By Ephraim Aguilar
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 17:08:00 11/09/2008
INQUIRER.net

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines--A Masbate Coast Guard station commander was relieved 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 before the holding of a formal investigation.

The Special Board Marine inquiry will start Monday in Masbate City and is expected delve into the alleged overloading of passengers and the sailing of the motorized boat without due notice to the Coast Guard.

Caballero said the boat captain, who was identified as Dante Bombales, did not inform the Coast Guard detachment in Cataingan town before it left the port in Dimasalang town, both in Masbate province.

"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 have been confirmed dead, 10 remained missing, and 105 survived.

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 Don Dexter Cathlyn had a passenger capacity of only 100.

Two Coast Guard vessels are still perusing the seawaters of Dimasalang in search for bodies. All bodies earlier retrieved have already been claimed by their relatives, said Dimasalang Mayor Dempha Du Naga by phone.

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