Hopes fade for Philippine ferry victims

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines (Reuters) - Rescuers halted efforts on Monday night to find nearly 800 people missing from a capsized ferry in the Philippines as darkness fell and large swells prevented divers from drilling holes into the doomed vessel.

Many passengers were feared trapped inside the Princess of Stars after a handful of survivors said people were still onboard when the ship sank off the central island of Sibuyan in waves as big as houses during Saturday's typhoon.

But officials held little hope of finding people alive in airpockets on the ferry.

"We feel there is no life inside," said Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a Philippine navy spokesman.

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

The coast guard said divers would cut open the 23,824 metric ton vessel on Tuesday after rescue efforts were halted for the night.

At least 20 new survivors and 15 bodies were found close to Masbate island, at least 70 km away from where the ship sank.

"We are still working on the positive identification of the survivors as well as the fatalities," Captain Gilbert Rueros said.

So far, over 50 people have been found alive and at least 20 have been reported dead out of 864 passengers and crew on board.

Washington was sending a military ship, the USNS Stockham, with helicopters on board, to help with rescue efforts as well as a maritime surveillance aircraft.

Typhoon Fengshen, which 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).

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 badly damaged the country's already shoddy infrastructure, washing away thousands of homes as well as roads and bridges.

BLOATED CORPSES

Nine male corpses believed to be passengers from the Princess of Stars washed ashore on Masbate island on Monday.

"The bodies were bloated and decomposing. What we did was just to wrap them up and buried them right away," a local mayor told radio.

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

"At the moment, they appear dazed and confused. We need all the help we can get," said Rolex Suplico, the vice-governor. "This is the worst flooding Iloilo has experienced."

Damage to agriculture and infrastructure in the province was pegged at 1.7 billion pesos ($38 million).

Fengshen is expected to bring heavy rain and winds to Taiwan and southern parts of China in the next few days according to storm tracker website www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

EMOTIONAL CATHOLIC MASS

Twenty eight passengers and crew from the passenger ferry survived after drifting for more than 24 hours in a rubber boat.

Jessie Buot swam for his life in a life vest and made it to Sibuyan island around 2-3 km away.

"I tried to be brave because I knew if I had succumbed to my fears, I would have died," the 24-year old farm worker told Reuters.

Philippine transport authorities said on Monday they had grounded the vessels of ferry company Sulpicio Lines for inspection. The company's ships have been involved in three other major disasters over the past 21 years.

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.

Ferry travel in the Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, is hazardous due to lax safety standards, old vessels and bad weather, but for many poor people it is the only means of inter-island travel.

Distraught relatives of the 724 passengers and 140 crew screamed at Sulpicio employees while waiting for news in the central city of Cebu, where Princess of Stars was meant to dock.

"You can't bring our loved ones back. You should be held responsible," one woman told Sulpicio staff.

The company said it would pay 200,000 pesos (about $4,500) compensation for every person who perished in the disaster and would also give some money, as yet unspecified, to survivors.

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Rosemarie Francisco; Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by David Fox)