It’s a routine trip carrying holidaymakers to visit family when tragedy strikes the Doña
Paz.
Petrified passangers risk their lives as they take the leap from the floating ball of flames.
For some, it’s a fatal decision either way.
And, it is not the first time the shipping company has faced an avoidable accident, nor
will it be the last.
As the Doña Paz sets off on the 20th of December, 1987, everyone expects it to arrive at its
destination.
The Filipino-registered passenger ferry takes the journey from Tacloban to Manila [with
stop-over in Catbalogan] twice a week.
Though the sinking of the Doña Paz is believed to be the largest maritime disaster in times
of peace, it is probably one of the least known tragedies to date.
En-route the inter-island passenger ferry collidea with a Filipino-owned oil tanker,
the MT Vector, at Dumali Point, near the island of Marinduque.
The oil tanker is on its way from Bataan to Masbate, carrying 1041 tons of gasoline and
petroleum products for Caltex, Philippines.
Sadly, neither the passenger ferry nor the oil tanker would ever reach their destination.
And only 24 passengers from the ferry and two crew members from the oil tanker would
live to tell the story of what happened on that fateful evening.
Since none of the Doña Paz crew survived, and the two crew members from the Vector were
reportedly asleep at the time of the collision, only the accounts of the survivors can help
us to piece together what caused this tragedy.
It is estimated that up to 16 million Islanders travel between some 7 thousand islands every
year in the Philippines, making ferry travel the most economical mode for many locals.
According to subsequent reports, overcrowding on passenger ferries is notorious in the country,
but even more so on this occasion, just five days before Christmas.
On Sunday, 20 December, the Doña Paz was making its way to Manila, with many excited
islanders hoping to meet up with family for the festive season.
Witness accounts claimed that the vessel, registered to carry just over 1 thousand 500
passengers, was reportedly leaning significantly more to one side when it left the port, indicating
that it was heavily loaded.
At 6:30 am, Doña Paz left the island of Leyte, setting sail for the overnight trip to Manilla.
According to the ship's initial manifesto, the vessel carried 1493 passengers and 59
crew members.
In contrast, survivors say the ferry was jam-packed.
One of the survivors Aludia Bascal, who was traveling with her father Salvador, told a
National Geographic film crew that the passengers were crammed into the ferry like cockroaches
or ants.
She said she saw four or more people sharing makeshift cots while hundreds tried to get
comfortable on the floors of the three-deck ferry.
In the same documentary, another survivor, military officer Luthgardro Niedo, says he
and about 1000 soldiers boarded at the last minute and were therefore not included on
the ship's official manifest.
It's also believed that about 1000 children under the age of 4, as estimated by the survivors,
were also left off the manifest.
This meant that the estimated headcount was double what it was said to be - with more
than 3000 people onboard.
At around ten that evening, many passengers were trying to sleep as the ferry was due
to dock in Manilla at around 4:30 am, a mere six hours away.
According to survivors, the evening was clear, and the waters choppy as the Doña Paz made
its way down the Tablas Strait.
Aludia's father, Salvador Bascal, found himself on the top deck that evening and saw a ship's
lights heading towards the ferry.
He would soon realize that the boat was sailing way too close and realized that it was going
to crash into their vessel.
That ship was, of course, the 629-ton, steel-hulled MT Vector carrying thousands of barrels of
highly flammable fuel products along with its crew of thirteen.
Yet despite good visibility and calm sea conditions, the Vector rammed right into the port side
of the Doña Paz, setting off an explosion that ripped through the engine room and main
switchboard of the ferry.
Survivors say the fire spread rapidly through the vessel, leaving multiple passengers trapped
by the inferno, unable to reach the decks.
It's believed the explosion led to a blackout onboard, which caused a frantic stampede in
overcrowded corridors as people tried to escape the flames and toxic fumes.
According to reports, hundreds of passengers who made it to the top deck near the ship's
railings threw themselves overboard into notoriously shark-infested waters of the strait rather
than risk dying in the flaming inferno on the ferry.
But they did not know at the time that the explosive cargo caused the blast on the tanker,
quickly turning the surrounding waters into a sea of fire.
Niedo, the military officer, was reportedly one of the first people to jump ship at the
moment of impact.
According to him, both vessels exploded a minute later, igniting the thick oil slick
on the water.
Aludia, who managed to jump overboard, quickly realized that the "sea was on fire" and resided
in the fact that she would probably die there.
Reports indicate that the flames on the water quickly grew miles wide around the vessels
as the evening winds fanned the fire on.
As passengers hurled themselves into the ocean, they discovered to their horror, that the
waters around the ships were littered with the burnt corpses of their fellow passengers.
Aludia said she had a tough time staying afloat and soon realized that the water was heating
up and started boiling the survivors alive.
But just as she gave up the fight to stay alive, her father, Salvador, found her.
Her skin peeled off as he grabbed her.
The two said they swam for over an hour to escape the hot waters burning them.
With little strength left to continue their fight for survival, the pair was scooped out
of the waters by a cargo vessel, the Don Claudio, which rescued them and the rest of the survivors.
According to maritime investigations and missing people's reports, it is believed that more
than 4300 people were traveling on the ferry that evening.
Tragically, only 24 passengers survived, along with two crew members from the oil tanker.
Many had to receive emergency treatment for third-degree burns.
Some survivors even spoke of seeing the skin falling and peeling from those around them.
In 2012, it came to light that there were, in fact, 25 Doña Paz survivors when Valeriana
Duma made it known via a television show called Wish Ko Lang!
Just 14 at the time, Duma was not accounted for by officials, making her the youngest
survivor.
It took less than two hours for the Doña Paz to meet her watery final resting place.
Arnel Galang, 18 at the time, told reporters the ship was engulfed in flames and rotated
twice before sinking slowly.
The Vector went down four hours after the initial explosion.
The Philippine Maritime authorities reportedly only learned about the collision eight hours
after the incident.
It would take the authorities yet another eight hours to mount a coordinated search
and rescue operation.
Over the following days, only 207 bodies washed up on the shores of the Tablas Strait.
Many believed that so few bodies were recovered due to the area being infamous for man-eating
sharks.
Maritime experts, however, believe it is more likely that passengers on the ferry died in
the overcrowded lower decks, overcome by the flames and unable to find their way to the
top decks.
But how exactly did these two vessels collide?
Reports based on witness accounts found that it was a clear evening which meant that visibility
was good.
Both vessels had their lights on and were moving pretty slowly at the time - the Doña
Paz at 16 miles per hour (26 km/h), and the Vector at a mere 5 miles (8 km) per hour.
It's also believed that the ships were surrounded by more than 11.5 square miles (30 square
kilometers) of open seas, allowing enough room to avoid a collision.
So what happened that night?
According to a surviving crew member of the Vector, Second Officer Reynaldo Tarife, the
vessel was understaffed, and neither he nor Captain Celso Abella had the necessary licenses.
Captain Abella only had a second officer's license, while the chief and chief engineer
were not licensed at all.
On top of that, the Vector did not have a certificate of inspection, making the vessel
unseaworthy at the time.
The Board of Marine Inquiry, looking into the incident, found that two people were needed
to steer the wheel of the tanker due to the ship's weight, which resulted in a zig-zag
motion toward the Doña Paz - which may have confused the crew.
Still, with plenty of room to maneuver on the open seas, why didn't the Doña Paz move
out of the way?
Well, according to the signed affidavits of the survivors, the vessel's Captain, Eusebio
Nazareno, was allegedly watching a moving at the time of the collision.
The other two senior officers were reportedly seen drinking beers.
Military survivor Niedo said he was chatting to a fellow soldier before the crash who told
him that there was a party at the bridge which the captain was at.
Niedo added that the soldier surmised that it meant that an apprentice mate was probably
steering the ship at the time.
And why didn't the vessels radio each other?
Based on investigations by the Board of Marine Inquiry, the Vector had an expired radio license,
and the Doña Paz carried a fake one.
So, who is to blame for this tragedy?
The board found that the fatal incident was due to a series of safety malpractices on
both vessels.
The owners of the Vector were found liable as the ship was not seaworthy and operated
without a license, a lookout, and a qualified Captain.
The Board subsequently found against the Vectors operator and owner Francisco Sorian and the
Vector Shipping Corp, absolving the Doña Paz's owners, Sulpicio Lines, of any liability
for the accident.
But the Philippine Coast Guard investigations found that none of the Doña Paz's crew was
stationed at their post when the collision occurred, leaving only one apprentice to man
the ship's bridge.
The crew also gave no guidance regarding evacuation efforts on the ferry, which was exacerbated
by the lack of life vests locked away on the decks' lockers.
Attorneys representing the Vectors owners added that the Doña Paz had been refurbished
in the early 1980s, adding two more decks to the vessel to allow more passengers.
However, the ship's certificate of stability was issued in 1980 based on two, not the four
decks it had when it went down.
This meant that the Doña Paz was actually not seaworthy at the time of the collision
as the stability certificate which was issued, would not take into account the extra two
decks.
The stability certificate essentially regulates that the ship has the ability to return to
an even keel if there is any inclination caused by outside factors, like strong winds or waves,
when a ship a turns.
We know by way of witness accounts that the ship was already listing to one side due to
overcrowding, which could have affected the ships ability to steer out of the way of the
approaching oil tanker.
It appears, however that tragedy and heartache was to follow Sulpicio Lines.
The owner company has been involved in four shipping accidents that claimed the lives
of around 5000 people over a period of 11 years.
The last incident in 2008 saw the Princess of the Stars ship go down near Sibuyan Island,
killing around 800 people.
A memorial honouring the victims of the tragedy was held in a park in Catbalogan, the ship’s
last stopover before it set sail on that fateful trip.
The memorial sight at Pieta which means pity in Italian, allows family and friends of the
victims a space to hounour their lives, in the absence of burial sites, as many bodies
were not recovered.
Sulpicio Lines has since changed its name and operates under Philippine Span Asia Carrier
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