They too survived by swimming out of the boat after it overturned.
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He said rescue teams were searching for those missing.
Dozens of people have been killed and many are missing after a ferry capsized in the Philippines.
He said the boat s outriggers apparently broke in the accident, and added it was possible the crew had committed a navigational error.
Panicked passengers crowded the right side of the ferry, causing it to tilt slowly before capsizing, Balilo said.
The authorities were puzzled how the accident had happened in relatively calm waters, after initial reports of choppy seas, and discounted speculation that the ferry was overloaded. He says he also saved an 8-year-old boy and the woman’s pregnant daughter.
“We’re scouring the ship for more survivors who may be trapped inside the hull”, he said.
National Red Cross Secretary-General Gwendolyn Pang said that the boat was a commercial “pump boat” or known locally as the banka, which is operated by a small engine and is often used around the country to transport people and goods and for fishing, according to CNN.
AP In this image made from video, rescuers help passengers from a capsized ferry boat, rear, in Ormoc city on Leyte Island, Philippines.
“It rolled while attempting to turn around swiftly”. “There was no time to jump”, she said.
Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Cmdr. Not far away, the bottom part of the vessel could be seen protruding from the water.
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There were more than 170 passengers aboard the MV Kim Nirvana when it went down in bad weather just 650 feet from the port, a spokeswoman for the Philippine coast guard told NBC News.
