Major ferry disasters: 1987-2013
RESCUERS help two passengers of the ill-fated MB Nirvana off Ormoc City. JHAY GASPAR/INQUIRER VISAYAS
August 2013: The passenger ferry St. Thomas Aquinas and cargo vessel Sulpicio Express 7 collide off Talisay City in Cebu province, resulting in the sinking of the ferry. The death toll in the collision was 108.
May 2009: The wooden-hulled MV Commander 6 cracks open and sinks just south of Manila, leaving 12 dead.
December 2008: Ferry Maejan capsizes off northern Philippines, killing 30 people.
November 2008: Don Dexter Kathleen, a small wooden-hulled ferry, capsizes off Masbate province, leaving 42 dead.
June 2008: MV Princess of the Stars, owned by Sulpicio Lines, sinks off the coast of Romblon province. Despite the bad weather caused by Typhoon “Frank,” the Coast Guard gives the vessel clearance to leave. Only 32 of the 851 people aboard survive.
February 2004: A fire breaks out on SuperFerry 14 near Manila Bay, leaving 116 dead. A group linked to Abu Sayyaf later claimed it planted a bomb aboard the vessel.
April 2000: The overloaded ML Anahanda, which was supposed to be operating only as a cargo vessel, sinks off the island of Jolo. About 100 of the estimated 150 people on board die.
September 1998: MV Princess of the Orient of Sulpicio Lines sinks between Cavite province and Batangas province, hours after it moved out of Manila at the height of Typhoon “Gading.” About 150 die.
December 1994: A Singaporean freighter hits MV Cebu City in Manila Bay, leaving about 140 dead.
October 1988: MV Doña Marilyn, a Sulpicio Lines ship, capsizes, killing 150 people. Authorities allowed Doña Marilyn to sail from Manila to Tacloban City at the height of Typhoon “Unsang.”
December 1987: MV Doña Paz, owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc., sails through Tablas Strait off Mindoro Oriental province to Manila.
The trip, which started from Tacloban City, Leyte province, carry passengers trying to get home for the Christmas holidays. Despite a clear night and fine weather, Doña Paz rams into the 629-ton Vector, which is transporting 9,000 barrels of fuel from Bataan province to Masbate province.
The collision sets off a fiery explosion, leaving more than 4,000 dead, making it the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster. Inquirer Research
