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28 Ferry Survivors Found After Deadly Typhoon

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The Associated Press

Published: June 23, 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Rescuers searched today for survivors of a typhoon that capsized a ferry, flooded villages and left many hundreds dead or missing along its violent path.

Coast guard chief Vice Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said 28 survivors of the ferry disaster had been found. Manila's DZBB radio said the survivors, including four crewmen and three women, drifted at sea for more than 24 hours wearing their life jackets, reaching Mulanay township in eastern Quezon province late Sunday.

Coast guard frogmen who managed to get to the stricken ship got no response when they rapped on the hull with metal instruments, then had to give up late Sunday because of the strong waves. The ship carried more than 740 passengers and crew.

Tamayo said today that rescuers may have to bore a hole on the ship to allow access for divers.

"They're scouring the area. They're studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted," coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Arman Balilo said.

Rescuers hoped to get inside with U.S. assistance requested by the Philippine Red Cross. Typhoon Fengshen has killed at least 163 people across the sprawling archipelago, setting off landslides and floods, and knocking out electricity.

So far, 38 people from the ferry are known to have made it to land. Six bodies, including those of a man and woman who had bound themselves together, have washed ashore, along with children's slippers and life jackets.

About two dozen relatives went to the Manila office of ferry owner Sulpicio Lines. Some wept as they waited.

"I'm very worried. I need to know what happened to my family," said Felino Farionin, his voice cracking. His wife, son and four in-laws were on the ferry, which was going from Manila to Cebu.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo talked to officials in a teleconference aired live on nationwide radio Sunday, scolding coast guard officials for allowing the ferry to leave Manila late Friday despite the bad weather.

Reynato Lanoria, a janitor on the ship, estimated about 100 people could have survived, "but the others were trapped inside."

"I think they are all dead by now," he told DZMM radio after making it to shore by jumping in the water and reaching a life raft.

Lanoria said he was on the top deck when a crew member ordered people to put on life vests around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. About 30 minutes later, the ship began tilting so fast that elderly people and children fell on the rain-slickened deck.

Passenger Jesus Gica also worried that many people were trapped below when the ship listed.

"There were many of us who jumped overboard, but we were separated because of the big waves," he said. "The others were also able to board the life rafts, but it was useless because the strong winds flipped them over."

The ferry initially ran aground a few miles off central Sibuyan island Saturday, then capsized, said Mayor Nanette Tansingco of Sibuyan's San Fernando. With the upturned ferry visible from her town, she appealed for food, medicine and embalming fluid.

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