Operators say SuperFerry 9 had enough vests and life-saving equipment

ZAMBOANGA CITY , Philippines  – Aboitiz Transport System denied yesterday allegations that M/V SuperFerry 9 lacked life vests and other life-saving equipment.

Capt. Erden Ferrer, Aboitiz chief security officer and senior representative, said the Coast Guard would not have allowed the ship to depart General Santos City without safety and other emergency provisions on board.

The life vests on the ship are equal to the number of passengers plus 10 percent more as extras, he added.

Ferrer said Aboitiz is ready to face an investigation to help determine the cause of the tragedy.

A thorough probe will determine the cause of the disaster, he added.

However, passenger Raffy Borro told reporters that no crewmen of SuperFerry 9 helped the passengers after the captain had ordered them to abandon ship.

“There weren’t enough life vests because we had to find our own life vest,” he said in Filipino.

Borro said the passengers themselves helped one another as the ship slowly listed to starboard at Baturampon Point.

Everyone tried to cling on to the limited ropes and climb down to the life rafts and Navy ships, he added.

Another passenger, Delia Gandicella, said she was told to jump overboard despite the darkness and let her child board the life rafts.

“I didn’t agree to this. I took the child with one hand and with the other held on to the rope as I climbed down,” she said.

Based on the manifest, SuperFerry 9 carried 832 passengers and 117 crewmembers.

However, the Coast Guard and Navy reported that more than 1,022 passengers have been rescued and 12 bodies were recovered.

‘Ship was already tilting on June 13’

A doctor from Angles City in Pampanga said yesterday the SuperFerry 9 already had an “abnormal tilt” when he took the ship from Manila to Cebu last June 13.

Richard Velez, an internist at the Angeles University Foundation Medical Center and the Perpetual Help Medical Center, told The STAR while the ship was docked in Manila, he noticed that it was tilting because the water in the glass in his room was uneven.

“But then I reasoned that the ferry’s being docked somehow caused that as I thought the vessel was tied to one side,” he said.

However, Velez said throughout the 24-hour trip to Cebu, the ship continued to tilt.

“I do not remember to which direction, but it remained tilted to one side, although the tilt was not as noticeable as when it was docked, ” he said.

Velez said when he took a bath, the water on the bathroom floor stayed on one side towards the apparent tilt and would not flow into the drain. “I remember that well because I don’t like bathroom floors accumulating water so I had to shove the water with my feet into the drain,” he said.

“I theorized that the tilt could be due to unequal distribution of cargo.”

Velez recalled he bought a ticket for SuperFerry 9 that was supposed to leave Manila for Cebu on June 12, Independence Day, with boarding time at 7 p.m.

For unknown reasons, the boarding time was initially rescheduled to 10 p.m. and was again changed to 4 a.m., and the ship departed Manila at about 9 a.m. of June 13 and arrived in Cebu some 24 hours later at about 9 a.m. on June 14, Velez said. – Roel Pareño, Ding Cervantes