Nine persons died, more than 30 were reported missing and 926 rescued after a ferry sank in darkness off the coast of Zamboanga del Norte province Sunday, authorities said. In the latest tragedy to hit the Philippines' notoriously dangerous maritime transport industry, survivors reported mass panic as the Superferry 9 began tilting sharply before dawn. Many aboard panicked as the huge ferry listed, said passenger Reymark Belgira. He said he saw parents tossing children to people on life rafts below, but he could not immediately jump himself. “I held on to the ferry for hours until day break. I couldn't jump into the water in the dark,” Belgira said. Passengers leapt into the dark sea and parents dropped children into life rafts from a stricken ferry with 968 passengers and crewmen after it capsized in the southern Philippines. Rescuers transferred 926 of 968 passengers and crewmen to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat, Tamayo said. A search was under way for 33 missing people. “We really hope they're just unaccounted for due to the confusion,” Tamayo said One survivor, Manuel Malicsi, said the people on board waited for rescuers to come for two hours. “They told us to stay calm but we could see no sign of rescue. Not for two hours,” Malicsi told radio station RMN. The vessel's violent rotation roused frightened passengers from their sleep and sent many jumping in the darkness into the water, coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said. Passenger Roger Cinciron said he felt the ferry tilting at about midnight but was assured by a crewman that all was well. About two hours later he was awoken by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he told DZMM radio. “People began to panic because the ship was really tilting,” he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship. The bodies of two other passengers were later plucked from the sea by fishermen, the coast guard said, adding three people were injured. A Canadian tourist, Jeffrey Predchuz, was among the survivors, officials said. The cause of the listing was not clear. The ferry skipper initially ordered everyone on board to abandon ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry. There were reports the 7,268-ton vessel listed to the right because of a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. Aerial photos from the navy showed survivors holding on to anything as the ferry tilted. Others climbed down a ladder on the side as a lone orange life raft waited below. The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city in the Visayas later Sunday but ran into problems midway, Tamayo said. The NDCC said the vessel, skippered by Captain Jose Yap, first sent a distress call at 4 A.M. reporting the ship's location off Siocon town that it was listing heavily on its right side due to a large hole. Teodoro rules out sabotage following reports that a hole on the ship's hull caused the vessel to list and sink five hours after the distress call was made. “As to the proximate and probable cause of the incident, it appears to me that (it was not a terrorist attack), it was not preceded by any fire or any explosion or what not,” he said. At least 441 passeners were rescued by MV Myriad , 268 by MV Integrity and 171 by a navy ship, Tamayo said.
