CEBU, Philippines -- Rescue boats plucked hundreds of survivors from heavy seas after a ferry carrying more than 650 people on board sank early Thursday. At least nine people were killed.
Many of the passengers, including students and children, were returning home for the holidays when the ferry went down around 5:45 a.m. in rough waters near Bantayan island in central Philippines.At least 591 people have been rescued, and around 60 others remain missing, said Maj. Gen. Santos Gabison, chief of the military's central Visayas command. Nine bodies have been recovered, he said.
Amid high waves that hampered rescue efforts, three cargo ships, MV John Dexter, MV Hidago II and MV Kerr picked up most of the survivors found so far, Gabison said. Three navy vessels were also involved.
The John Dexter rescued about 200 people, said radio operator Antonio Regoya of the Roble Shipping Lines in Cebu City, who was in radio contact with the cargo ship and with the ferry.
The ferry was listing on its left side and had no lights on minutes before it disappeared into the water, crew members on the John Dexter told Regoya.
The ship's lights were knocked out when a big wave swamped the ferry, Regoya said he was told by the ferry's third mate, Warlito Sobreo.
The crew distributed life vests and immediately launched life rafts, loading them first with children, Sobreo, who was among the survivors, told the radio operator.
The ferry left Cebu City, 300 miles southeast of Manila, for Iloilo City on a nearby island Wednesday.
It carried 606 passengers and 52 crew members, said Jonji Gonzales, a spokesman for Trans-Asia Shipping Lines, which owns the 2,840-ton Japan-built ferry. But such official lists are often imprecise.
Commander Franklin Llanto, the Cebu Coast Guard district chief, said the ferry's departure was delayed about three hours after inspectors found it carried 80 passengers more than its allowed maximum of 614.
Gonzales confirmed the delay but insisted, "We will never sail if we are overloaded."
A Nepalese student, Gurung Sundip, said 12 of his Nepalese classmates at the Cebu Doctors College boarded the ferry and there was no word about them. The group, eight women and four men, were planning a vacation on Boracay island north of Iloilo.
Another group of 138 students and five of their teachers from the Western Institute of Technology were also on the ferry on their way home to Iloilo City from an educational tour in Cebu.
At least three of the teachers have been rescued, a Bantayan town council member said.
Reports from Bantayan indicated strong winds and fog in the area. The John Dexter had to suspend rescue efforts and take shelter near a small isle off Panay island west of Cebu because of big waves, Regoya said.
Ferries are the main form of transportation among the Philippines' more than 7,000 islands, but overcrowding and accidents are common.
In the world's worst peacetime shipping disaster, the Dona Paz ferry collided with a tanker on Dec. 20, 1987, killing 4,341.
In October 1988, 250 people were killed in the sinking of the Dona Marilyn. In September last year, the Princess of the Orient sank with 505 people aboard, leaving at least 150 people dead or missing. All three ships were owned by the Cebu-based Sulpicio Lines.