By Xinhua,
Manila : A transport safety agency will be created in the Philippines in the wake of a passenger vessel’s capsizal over the weekend, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Department of Transportation and Communications has drafted an executive order for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s signature that will create the National Transport Safety Board, according to the statement posted on the government’s official website.
The drafting of the executive order is now ready to be transmitted to the Office of the President, according to Elena Bautista, Undersecretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications for Maritime Transport.
Bautista said the new agency, as a separate body, will investigate transport disasters and be independent of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority.
On its way from Manila to Cebu, the 23,800-ton M/V Princess of the Stars sank off the Philippines’ central province of Romblon at the height of Typhoon Fengshen which lashed the archipelago from east to west over the weekend.
There were 862 people on board as the passenger ferry capsized, including “751 manifested passengers and 111 crew members”, according to the Sulpicio Lines company, owner of the ill-fated vessel.
As of Tuesday, 48 survivors and 67 fatalities have been confirmed by the Philippine Coast Guard, while most of the others may have died.