Philippines Ferry Search Halted

CHEN:
The rescue efforts to find hundreds of bodies aboard a Philippines Ferry has been halted. Rescue divers have been alerted that 10 tons of a deadly pesticide, endosulfan was aboard the ferry when it capsized last Saturday. Among the trapped 800 or so passengers and crew, only 54 have been found.

STORY:
Officials are angry at the owners of the Princess of the Stars. They say Sulpicio Lines will be held accountable for not alerting them to 400 boxes of endosulfan on board.

Divers working on the rescue are undergoing medical tests for possible exposure to the deadly chemical.

[Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, Philippines Coast Guard]:
"Search and rescue operations are temporarily suspended until such time that we are sure that the chemicals have not spread and there is no danger for our divers."

The United States' Environmental Protection Agency classifies this chemical as highly toxic. The cargo was being shipped to a pineapple plantation in the southern Philippines.

[Eduardo Duque, Secretary of Health]:
"Endosulfan is a restricted pesticide for use in pineapple plantations. At toxic levels and following ingestion, it can cause death or affect the central nervous system."

Sulpicio Lines who are already under fire for allowing the ferry to sail say they were never asked about the cargo.

[Mario Victoria Lim-Florendo, Sulpicio Lines Spokesman]:
"The Coast Guard is the lead agency. We are just cooperating and assisting them. If there was a question with respect to the cargo, we would have voluntarily, we would have willingly revealed all of this."

The police have sealed off the area around the capsized vessel. They plan to start removing the pesticide when special diving gear arrives.

Efforts to retrieve bodies from the ship will be left till next week. So far, only 56 survivors have been found from the 850 that left on the ill fated voyage.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NTD
• NTDTV
• news
• Philippine
• Ferry
• Rescue
• divers
• pesticide
• endosulfan
• Sulpicio-Lines

[N4ilB0mb]

Not only sulpicio is the accountable but also the Philippine Coast Guard for their cowardice aborting the rescue mission due to big waves.

Philippine Marines die because of the bullets from the MILF.

I don't think Philippine Coast Guard will die against the stormy weather.

[caddict69]

putang ina kayo sulpicio lines, marami na kayong kasalanan, isara na yan sulpicio lines....arroyo regime, kasohan ninyo si sulpicio...

[Flipsify]

The Abusayyap responsible for this terrorist attack against the innocent civilians will never be forgotten..they can hide but they can not escape.

They will be hunted down in the jungles like animals..their new recruits, the uneducated and naive poor people will be added as their victims as well.

[BUENVIAJE005]

makiki putang ina na din ako ah..

PUTANG INA!

[human888instinct]

that ship really has no effective water ballast system! .......the coast guard has nothing to say about it!that ship has a structural failure too! there plenty philippine ship that sails without an effective water ballast system!

[shiejan]

watch out your the next

[ralphserrano]

yeah and your next asshole