Philippine ferry capsizes, hundreds found alive

A ferry that capsized off the coast of Zamboanga del Norte in the Philippines has amazingly had most of the thousand plus passengers onboard all saved from certain death. The ship listed starboard side and many of the passengers scrambled to hold on to the port side. The SuperFerry 9 then began to sink, but most of the passengers and crew survived the sinking.

The incident happened on Sunday when the ship was travelling from the southern Philippine city of General Santos to Iloilo City in central Philippines. The ship began to list for no apparent reason according to reports of passengers aboard the ferry. Nine people have been confirmed dead, but three are thought to have died in the panic the ensued when the listing started.

Official have already haulted all of the other ships operated by Aboitiz Transport System pending a review and inspection of their vessels by the Maritime Industry Authority. A spokesman for the largest passenger shipping company in the Philippines said that all those that were aboard the ferry will receive medical assistance, have hotels bills covered and any other expenses arising from the sinking.

Terrorism has been ruled out by many officials already as there were no reports of an explosion, but this was the third ship in the area to go down in just two days.