Death ship 'suicide bomber' riddle
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The Super Ferry 14: Company would not comment on reports of threats
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MARIVELES, Philippines (Reuters) -- Clutching photos and flowers, relatives of 134 people missing after a Philippine ferry fire visited the wreck Wednesday as officials said the passengers included a man named by rebels as a suicide bomber.
Authorities continued to play down claims by the Abu Sayyaf group of Muslim guerrillas that it was responsible for the fire that ravaged the ferry in the early hours of last Friday.
But the coastguard confirmed the passenger list bore the name of a man whom the rebels claimed had set off a bomb about an hour into the ship's overnight journey from Manila to the central city of Bacolod with nearly 900 passengers and crew on board.
"Yes, Arnulfo Alvarado is on the manifest list," Rear Admiral Arthur Gosingan, head of the coast guard, told Reuters.
"But whether he really is Abu Muadz, who the Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani claims planted the bomb that ignited the fire, we do not know."
The WG&A consortium that owns the 155-m (510-foot) Super Ferry 14 said it was common for transport operators to receive threats but declined to comment on a newspaper report it had been told an attack was imminent.
"We have been closely working with the intelligence community, so any information regarding threats to security will be handled properly," said WG&A spokeswoman Gina Virtusio.
Maritime officials were focusing on sabotage after WG&A had received threats, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
"As of now, we see sabotage as the strongest angle in the investigation," the newspaper quoted Oscar Sevilla, administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority, as saying.
"The passengers were unanimous in saying that they heard a blast. If the fire was caused by merely faulty electrical wiring, they would not have heard a blast."
Maritime accidents are common in the Philippines, often caused by overcrowding on rickety craft. The Super Ferry 14 was apparently not overloaded and is a relatively new ship.
Reward offered
WG&A provided ships on Wednesday to take desperate relatives to the wreck of the ferry.
Some carried photocopied pictures of missing family members to distribute on shore, while others brought flowers to cast over the presumed grave of their relatives.
Leyco is offering a $1,790 reward for information on his mother.
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One family said it was offering 100,000 pesos ($1,790) for any information on their missing mother.
Divers found four bodies on Wednesday, the first discovered in a search of the wreck, Gosingan said. One body was found immediately after the fire.
The number of missing has fallen as survivors have contacted authorities but the coast guard was losing hope anyone could still be alive inside the ferry, which is lying on its side after being towed to shallow coastal waters in Bataan province.
"I have read the stories of those who survived ship sinkings because of air bubbles," Wilfredo Tamayo, the coast guard official supervising the operation, told Reuters. "But in this case, it's very remote that there are survivors."
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Solaiman was quoted on Sunday by a radio network on the southern island of Mindanao as saying his group sabotaged the ferry to protest ill treatment of Muslim women, among other grievances, in the nation's Islamic heartland.
The group named Alvarado as a suicide bomber, media reported.
Analysts believe Abu Sayyaf -- which has kidnapped and killed foreigners and Filipinos in the past -- has been seriously weakened in recent years by internal rifts, the deaths of high-ranking members and a U.S.-assisted military offensive.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
