Quote:MANILA, Philippines -- Hundreds are feared dead after a ferry carrying more than 700 passengers and crew sank in rough seas during a typhoon off Sibuyan Island, officials and reports said Sunday.

The MV Princess of the Stars went down at around noon Saturday (0400 GMT) several kilometers off the coast of Sibuyan, in Romblon province after being battered by huge waves when its engines failed, officials and survivors said.

Four bodies washed ashore on Sibuyan and four survivors were found, but the death toll is likely to rise sharply with the fate of the rest of the passengers and crew unknown, officials and reports said.

The increasingly desperate search for survivors was halted for the evening as frantic relatives descended on the offices of the ferry company demanding to know why the ship had been allowed to set sail with a typhoon approaching.

One of the known survivors, crew member Reynato Lanorio, said the ship listed and sank in just 15 terrifying minutes.

"It seemed like everything happened in 15 minutes. Next thing we knew, the ship had gone under," he said, adding the captain of the 23,824-tonne vessel gave orders to abandon ship shortly after it listed, sending passengers and crew scrambling for life rafts.

"Many of us managed to get on the lifeboats, but I don't know if they survived," the crew member told DZBB radio from his hospital bed where he was being treated for cuts to his face.

He added four other people on his raft were wrenched away by the huge waves while he clung on for dear life.

Some reports said the vessel began taking water after the hull of the ferry developed a hole. Witnesses reported lifejackets from the doomed vessel washing ashore along with the shoes of children and other debris.

"There were many plastic slippers of children also found floating on the shore but no survivors," said Nanette Tansingco, mayor of San Fernando, a coastal town on Sibuyan about 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Manila.

The ship, en route from the capital Manila to the central island of Cebu and 16 hours into its 22-hour voyage, issued a distress signal before going down.

Quote:MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Rodolfo Biazon Wednesday questioned the US government’s deployment of an aircraft carrier to help in the search for survivors of the capsized MV Princess of the Stars and the retrieval of bodies trapped in the vessel.

“An aircraft carrier is not designed for salvage. The USS Ronald Reagan is a strategic and combat vessel whose main assets are aircraft, F-18s. What will the F-18s do for the recovery [efforts]?” Biazon, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces, said in a press conference.

He said the US government should have sent smaller ships with a crane instead.

Biazon also said that while the deployment of the aircraft carrier showed the US government’s readiness to lend a helping hand, “I don’t think it can do anything to really assist the Philippine government in having to do what has to be done.”

The Ronald Reagan strike group consists of the carrier, a cruiser, three destroyers and a frigate. The group left about 100 American sailors behind in Hong Kong when it had to depart port on Sunday, a day early, because of safety concerns related to Typhoon “Frank” (international codename: Fengshen).

Quote:But Biazon also questioned whether the USS Ronald Reagan should be allowed to enter Philippine seas if it had nuclear weapons on board.

The Philippine Constitution bars the entry of nuclear weapons into the country, he pointed out.

Anthony Golez, Ms Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson, said the deployment of the aircraft carrier would not violate the Constitution, which states that “the Philippines, consistent with the national interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from nuclear weapons in its territory.”

“Ever mindful of the prohibition, the President made it to a point that the carrier group will not be bringing nuclear weapons in consonance with the policy of freedom from nuclear weapons,” Golez said in Malacañang.

AppleHead Wrote:...Nature's way of population control.

theGrim Wrote:Twin, I can't help but side a bit with the sentiments Senator Biazon. I don't know if what help the USS Reagan can do would be better off than sending help in other methods. Of course you could say that at the end of the day they're still helping with the relief operations, but there's something about it that bothers me.

Twin-Skies Wrote:On the other hand, yeah, the Ronald Reagan might be a subtle show of power on the US' part

There's a saying in the military that the minute the US sends a Nimitz after you, it's either they're showing you who's boss