The captain of the MV Mercraft 2, which caught fire early Monday morning, is now in the custody of the Philippine Coast Guard, said PCG spokesman Armand Balilo on Tuesday.
“Hawak na rin namin ang kapitan ng fast craft. Magsisimula na kaming magtanong ngayong araw at maliliwanagan tayo kung saan talaga nangyari… Gugulong ang imbestigasyon sa mga susunod na araw,” Balilo told Super Radyo dzBB.
(We are in the custody of the captain of the fast craft. We will start asking questions today to find out where it happened. The investigation will be rolled out in the next few days.)
He also said that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) wants to consider every possible reason why the fire started.
Another investigation will be done by the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).
At least seven people died when the MV Mercraft 2, which was traveling along a route called Polillo-Real-Polillo, caught fire off the coast of the province of Quezon.
Balilo said 24 people were hurt, and three were in terrible shape.
There were 134 people on the MV Mercraft 2, 126 passengers, and eight crew members.
Balilo also said that everyone on the crew lived.
All crew members of MV Mercraft 2 survive fire incident; 7 passengers died
The PCG will look at all the physical evidence to figure out what caused the fire and see if there were any dangerous materials around.
“May mga nagsasabi na may narinig silang pagsabog mula sa engine, base sa mga nakalap namin sa inisyal na pagtatanong sa mga nakaligtas na pasahero,” Balilo said.
(Some say they heard an explosion from the engine, based on what we gathered in the initial questioning of the surviving passengers.)
“Kung sa engine room nagsimula (ang sunog), dapat hindi nakaligtas ang crew na nandoon… Maaaring hindi doon nagsimula ang sunog,” he added.
(If the fire started in the engine room, the crew would not have survived. The fire may not have started there.)
Balilo said that the manifest had a list of all the people on board MV Mercraft 2 and that the weather had nothing to do with what happened.
“Hindi naman masyadong luma ang fast craft pero hindi natin alam kung prone ito sa sunog dahil gawa ito sa fiber glass… Pero pumasa naman ito sa standards kaya ipinagpapalagay natin na ito ay seaworthy,” he said.
(The fast craft is not very old, but we do not know if it is prone to fires because it is made of fiberglass. However, (the vessel) passed the standards, so we assume that it is seaworthy.)
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