Worst Than The Titanic- MV Doña Paz

[3] The Investigation [3]

Chapter 3: The Investigation

Only 26 survivors were retrieved from the water. 24 of them were passengers from the Doña Paz while the other two were crewmen from the MT Vector's 13 man crew. None of the crew of the Doña Paz survived. Most of the survivors sustained burns from jumping into the flaming waters.

According to the initial announcement made by Sulpicio Lines, the official passenger manifest of the Doña Paz recorded 1,493 passengers and 59 crew members aboard. According to Sulpicio Lines, the ferry was able to carry 1,424 passengers. A revised manifest released on December 23, 1987, showed 1,583 passengers and 59 crew members on the Doña Paz, with 675 people boarding the ferry in Tacloban City and 908 coming on board in Catbalogan City. However, an anonymous official of Sulpicio Lines told UPI that extra tickets were usually purchased illegally aboard the ship at a cheaper rate, and those passengers were not listed on the manifest. The same official added that holders of complimentary tickets and non-paying children below the age of four were likewise not listed on the manifest.

Survivors claimed that it was possible that the Doña Paz may have carried as many as 3,000 to 4,000 passengers. They took as signs that the ferry was overcrowded the fact that they saw passengers sleeping along corridors, on the boat decks, or on cots with three or four persons on them. Of the 21 bodies that had been recovered and identified as passengers on the ship five days after the accident, only one of the fatalities was listed on the official manifest. Of the 24 passengers who survived, only five were listed on the manifest.

On December 28, 1987, Representative Raul Daza of Northern Samar claimed that at least 2,000 passengers on board the Doña Paz were not on the ship's manifest. He based that figure on a list of names furnished by relatives and friends of missing people believed aboard the ferry, the names having been compiled by radio and television stations in Tacloban City.

In February 1988 the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation stated, on the basis of interviews with relatives, that there were at least 3,099 passengers and 59 crew on board, giving 3,134 on-board fatalities.

In January 1999 a presidential task force report estimated, on the basis of court records and more than 4,100 settlement claims, that there were 4,341 passengers. Subtracting the 24 surviving passengers, and adding 59 crew gives 4,375 onboard fatalities. Adding the 11 dead from the Vector crew, the total becomes 4,386.