Ill-fated MB Nirvana-B overloaded with cargo

ORMOC CITY, Philippines – The police here have filed before the City Prosecutor’s Office the testimony of two witnesses who claim that the ill-fated MB Kim Nirvana-B was not only overloaded with passengers, but also with cargo.

Rubuel Eamiguel Pitogo, a checker/collector at the Ormoc City Port, in his sworn statement said the cargo manifest submitted by boat captain Warren Oliverio to the Philippine Coast Guard was “deceptive.”

The boat captain, in his counter-affidavit, had earlier claimed that the boat was only loaded with 100 sacks of cement, around 50 sacks of rice and feeds, and another 10 sacks of fertilizers. These were way below the boat’s gross tonnage, even counting in the passengers.

However, Pitogo said his laborers loaded 118 sacks of “rice, feedmill, livestock feeds and fertilizers” alone. This was on top of 121 sacks of cement, earlier recorded by the checker of Mercury Hardware, where the passengers brought the cement from.

Pitogo submitted his list of cargo loaded on the boat that day. He said there are only 25 sacks of cement on his list because its owner, a certain Liza, did not pay their loading services upfront.

He said they only listed those who did not pay upfront. However, he recalled that at least four people also loaded cement that fateful day. He identified them as “Sir Roque, Celsa, Dodong and Ira.”

“Ira” alone, he said, loaded 50 sacks. Ira’s cargo, however, do not appear on his list because they were paid even before the cement bags were loaded.

The other witness, Joel Luna, a port laborer, said he is also convinced that the boat was overloaded both with passengers and cargo before it sailed. He said “all seats have been occupied by passengers and some were already sitting on top of the cargoes while others were standing.”

He also noticed that the “boat’s outrigger was already below sea level.”

Luna’s claim coincided with that of the accounts of the complainants who filed criminal charges against the boat captain, the owner and his crew.

Most of the victims claim that the boat was overloaded with some passengers already sitting on the cargo. They also noted that the cargo were just loose, badly arranged and unharnessed, which easily rolled over to the starboard side when it keeled.

To recall, the MB Kim Nirvana-B, a motorboat that was on its way to Pilar, Camotes from here, capsized just about 200 meters away from the port on July 2 at around 12:20 noon, when it overturned to starboard side as it made a turn, and did not recover its balance.

Some 62 people died, 158 were rescued, while another four remain missing.  The number of passengers was 46 people over the boat’s allowed maximum passenger capacity of 178.

Captain Pedro Tinampay, then the district commander of the Philippine Coast Guard here, who has since been relieved from his post, once told media it cannot be denied that the boat was indeed overloaded with passengers as the actual body count showed, but it did not mean that it was sailing beyond its capacity.

He said weight of the cargo had also to be taken into consideration, and the cargo manifest they have showed it was not over the ship’s 33.58 gross tonnage.