Remembering the Doña Paz sinking
For our Christmas Presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky” we bring you a Christmas show that we have never done in my 19 years doing this show. We present to you the Christmas trees of Cebu from various hotels or shopping malls, the Fuente Osmeña Christmas tree, the one in Fort San Pedro, and in the Provincial Capitol as our Christmas show for you.
We start this show in the lobby of the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel and end it with their beautiful Christmas tree with Manna, Febe, and Yumni Marriott so as to end this wonderful presentation. So please watch and enjoy our Christmas presentation on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
* * *
I didn’t realize that last Friday was the 32nd year of the infamous sinking of the M/V Doña Paz of Sulpicio Lines, which was rammed by the tanker M/T Vector in Tablas Strait on Dec. 20, 1987 killing more than 4,386 passengers. Only 24 survived the worst maritime tragedy in Asia. Pundits have named it “Asia’s Titanic”. Now you may ask, why am I writing about this tragedy 32 years ago?
Apparently I have been following the undersea exploits of the survey Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel, the exploration ship owned and operated by the late Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. We learned that the R/V Petrel partnered with the National Museum of the Philippines to examine the site of the M/V Doña Paz and M/T Vector in Tablas Strait last April. So I guess it came out of the press because of the 32nd anniversary of this tragedy.
In a press release, Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Vulcan Inc., said “During our work searching for WWII wrecks in the Philippine Seas, people frequently asked us to look for the Doña Paz and told us stories of loved ones who had perished, we were honored to assist the Philippines government in this mission and hope the news brings closure to families and friends of those lost at sea.”
Their report read, “the heavily overcrowded Doña Paz sailed from Leyte Island to the Filipino capital Manila. A petroleum fire spread from the Vector to the ferry and people reportedly jumped into flaming waters.” The R/V Petrel report said that the wrecks of the two ships were found in the Sibuyan Sea more than 2,200 meters apart in depths of more than 500 meters. Both wrecks are sitting upright on their keels and are largely intact on the seabed. The images were captured last April but released for the 32nd anniversary of the disaster on Friday.
Being a World War II buff, I’ve been following on my Facebook page what the R/V Petrel has been doing since they entered the Philippine waters and I salute the crew of the Petrel that has discovered more than 30 sunken warships including USS Indianapolis, the US battleship that brought the atomic bombs that were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was sunk by a Japanese submarine a week after they delivered their nuclear cargo on July 30, 1945. It sank in 12 minutes and came to rest 5,500 meters down in the Philippine Sea. Of 1,196 sailors and marines on board, only 316 survived what is the greatest loss of life at sea from a single ship in US Navy history.
The R/V Petrel also found the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Akagi off Midway. This was the lead Japanese ship that attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese Navy vessel Kaga was also found in the vicinity including USS Lexington, USS Juneau, USS Helena, USS Hornet, and many more warships near the Leyte Gulf. They also found the Japanese battleship Hiei, which sank in the South Pacific during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.
So back to the Doña Paz tragedy, there are various factors that contributed to the sinking. It was rammed by the M/T Vector, which was laden with fuel. But the fact that the Doña Paz was overloaded with passengers was the contributory factor that resulted in the loss of lives. We are writing this historic to remember those who perished in the worst maritime tragedy in Asia.
- Latest
