Divers search for bodies in Philippine ferry disaster

By Romeo Ranoco

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines, June 24 (Reuters) - Divers circled a ferry in the central Philippines on Tuesday looking for bodies as hope faded for around 800 people still missing after the vessel capsized in a typhoon.

Hundreds of passengers were feared trapped inside the Princess of the Stars when it went belly up off the central island of Sibuyan in waves as big as houses during Saturday's typhoon, but rescuers are not optimistic about finding anyone alive in airpockets on the ferry.

"The divers are looking at entering from underneath. They are also looking at accessing the ship through points on the side; doors and windows," Vice-Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the head of the coast guard, told Reuters.

If the divers are unable to enter the 23,824 tonne vessel, Tamayo said they would try to bore a hole into its side, a procedure complicated by the fuel on board.

"That is something that should be carefully planned," he said.

A U.S. military ship, the USNS Stockham, with helicopters on board, was on hand to help with rescue efforts.

Princess of the Stars was resting upside down with the tip of its bow above the water and its stern resting on the bottom of the sea, easily visible from shore.

So far at least 33 people have been found alive out of 864 passengers and crew on board.

Typhoon Fengshen, which has weakened to a tropical storm over the South China Sea, pounded the Philippines at the weekend with gusts of up to 195 kph (120 mph).

It is currently swirling towards southern China.

THE LATEST TRAGEDY

Aside from the ferry disaster, possibly the worst in the Philippines in over 20 years, at least 155 people were killed, largely by drowning, in a torrent of floods in the south and centre of the archipelago, according to the Red Cross.

The sixth typhoon to hit the archipelago this year badly damaged the country's already shoddy infrastructure, washing away thousands of homes as well as roads and bridges.

In Iloilo, the province worst hit by Fengshen, over 200,000 people were forced to evacuate, the Red Cross said.

Complicating ferry rescue efforts, the coast guard admitted on Tuesday that another vessel, a cargo ship, had also sank in the vicinity of the Princess of the Stars on Saturday.

Officials said 3 people died, 6 survived and 17 were missing from the second ship and it was difficult to determine if swollen corpses recently washed up were from this vessel or the Princess of the Stars.

Shipping tragedies are a common event in the Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands where safety rules are poorly implemented and substandard vessels ply dangerous waters.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on a state visit to the United States, has ordered a review of maritime regulations and authorities have suspended the operations of the ferry's owner, Sulpicio Lines, which has been involved in three other major shipping disasters in the past 21 years.

"What all these cases, including the latest tragedy, indicate is that there is a very low regard for the value of human life, a very loose and relaxed set of rules on clearances for sailing and possible irregularities in the issuance of such clearances," said an editorial in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

In 1987, the Sulpicio-owned Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker killing more than 4,000 people in the world's worst peacetime sea tragedy.

(Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by David Fox)