At least four people were confirmed dead after the ship they were boarding was engulfed in a fire past 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)-Dapitan confirmed the death of 60-year-old Danilo Gomez, one year old baby Koy Lambisig, and two still unidentified persons in the said sea tragedy.
Lt. Jg. Cherry Rose Manaay, PCG-Dapitan chief, said that Gomez and Lambisig died possibly because of suffocation of their life jackets.
“Hindi naayos ang tali ng life jacket. Posible na na-suffocate sila. Hindi naman sila nalunod o nasunog,” said Manaay.
While the other two victims drowned and their body were found in an island.
Manaay said that they already accounted 111 passengers, including those who died in the tragedy.
According to PCG-Cebu, MV Lite Ferry 16, a roll-on, roll-off vessel, had 137 passengers—109 adults, 24 children and four infants.
The said vessel came from Samboan, Cebu bound for Dapitan City.
With the said number, PCG said that they are still missing passengers but they cannot give to the exact numbers of missing persons as of this writing.
Meanwhile, Lt. Jg. Manaay slammed claims that the coast guard did not respond right away to the incident.
“Matapos po namin na received yung distressed call, agad po kaming nag dispatch ng vessels at saka motorbanca namin. Pero 4.2 nautical miles po yung layo namin sa barko. Kaya nung nalaman namin na malapit lang yung Fast Cat hiningi po namin yung assistance nila at sila po yung unang nag responde,” said Manaay.
Some passengers of Lite Ferry claimed that coast guard did not respond and said they arrived four to five hours later after the fire broke out.
One of the passengers named Fred Castro lamented how slow the respond of PCG in their situation.
In his Facebook post, Castro said that if it weren’t for Fast Cat they’re probably dead by now.
In a separate interview, Manaay said that they responded immediately and arrived an hour after.
“Due to bad weather malakas yung alon at saka mahina ang signal doon kaya nahirapan atyong makarating agad-agad,” Manaay said.
Photo from Allan Barredo’s Facebook page
