Philippines inquiry opens as 800 feared dead in ferry disaster

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines (AFP) — Philippine investigators began an inquiry Wednesday into a ferry disaster feared to have killed nearly 800 people as rescuers said there was little hope of finding survivors.

More than 100 US and Filipino divers combed the wreckage of the 24,000-tonne Princess of the Stars, whose upturned bow jutted above waters off the central island of Sibuyan after it capsized in a typhoon on Saturday.

"There are no signs of life," said navy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, adding that at least 60 bodies were retrieved at or around Burias island on Wednesday.

The latest recovery of bodies brings the number of bodies found from the ship to at least 127, according to a count by the navy, meaning some 660 of the more than 850...