8 bodies inside MV Princess recovered

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Romblon - The recovery of the remains of passengers trapped inside the MV Princess of the Stars started Sunday morning, with the divers fishing out eight bodies.

Rodrigo Bella, project manager of the Harbor Star, the salvor company, said the eight bodies came from the economy deck of the sunken ship.

He said the retrieval operations might take at least two weeks, depending on the weather conditions. The bodies, officials of the NBI said, were in advanced state of decomposition as expected.

But Dr. Renato Bautista, the NBI official in charge of identifying the bodies assured the families of the victims that DNA samples could still be retrieved from the bodies for their identification, despite the remains’ advanced state of decomposition.

“There is no problem getting the DNA sample. We’re trying to get as much as bone samples as possible,” said Bautista.

DNA samples from the bone tissues of the bodies will be collected and sent to a DNA testing center in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. After a few weeks, the results will be sent back to the NBI in Cebu, where the remains would be sent for final identification and retrieval by families.

Bautista is appealing to families to present themselves to the NBI for DNA matching.

The Philippine Coast Guard said that of the missing 515 passengers, it believed that most have been in the sunken ferry.

The MV Princess of the Stars, the flagship of the Sulpicio Lines Inc., sank off Simbulan Island, Romblon, last June 21 at the height of typhoon “Frank.” Only over 30 persons survived, over 200 bodies were recovered from surrounding coastlines and over 500 are expected to be recovered from the sunken ferry.

The Board of Marine Inquiry has recommended the cancellation of SLI’s license to operate passenger and cargo ships for negligence.