A search ends, a search continues

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Gathering storm clouds at Aroroy Port (Shot by Doni Bolante)

AROROY, MASBATE–The port area has been quiet this week. It used to welcome daily busloads of passengers plus tons of goods brought in by ten-wheelers transported through Roll On-Roll Off (RoRo) ships. Now, the few vessels there are bancas and a large cargo ship on a weeklong stop to sell cement to local hardware stores and construction work.

Recent days were sunny, with the occasional downpour. When the afternoons are dry, the pier becomes a vast park of young people. Some still in uniforms hang out with school mates. Preteen boys wearing shorts and bare feet dive into the bay or kick around a football.

It was unlike our first few days. Jorge Cariño’s morning live reports were beset by a combination of heavy rain and strong winds that sometimes knocked over the umbrella covering our setup or had us securing our equipment from water.

Our makeshift ‘ulan’ set up (Shot by Doni Bolante)

The slow-shrinking puddles near our satellite truck only remain of that ordeal. Our truck was left staying overnight at the port after the field crews of GMA 7 and TV5 returned to Manila.

The problematic weather also set back the Coast Guard’s search and rescue efforts for the seven still-missing passengers of the M/V Lady of Carmel which sank on its way here.

The ferry sank too deep (1,314 feet, say authorities) even for divers to check out. In comparison, the body of interior Sec. Jesse Robredo was recoveredfrom a downed plane nearly 200 feet underwater off Masbate City.

The most progress searchers made since recovering the two declared casualties of the M/V Carmel was to find planks, head rests, and packed food floating around the sinking site two days later.

The following day, the Coast Guard presumed the chances of finding the seven people alive too slim and switched the operation from rescue to retrieval. And with the monsoon rains, they were resigned to wait for reports of bodies that might wash up in the coasts.

(Shots by Val Cuenca, ABS-CBN News)

It has not given rest, however, to the missing passengers’ families our news teams talked to across Masbate.