At 6:20 o'clock in the morning of 22 April 1980, the M/T "Tacloban City," a barge-type oil tanker of Philippine registry, with a gross tonnage of 1,241,68 tons, owned by the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and operated by the PNOC Shipping and Transport Corporation (PNOC Shipping), having unloaded its cargo of petroleum products, left Amlan, Negros Occidental, and headed towards Bataan. At about 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon of that same day, the M/V "Don Juan," an interisland vessel, also of Philippine registry, of 2,391.31 tons gross weight, owned and operated by the Negros Navigation Co., Inc. (Negros Navigation) left Manila bound for Bacolod with seven hundred fifty (750) passengers listed in its manifest, and a complete set of officers and crew members.
On the evening of that same day, 22 April 1980, at about 10:30 o'clock, the "Tacloban City" and the "Don Juan" collided at the Talbas Strait near Maestra de Ocampo Island in the vicinity of the island of Mindoro. When the collision occurred, the sea was calm, the weather fair and visibility good. As a result of this collision, the M/V "Don Juan" sank and hundreds of its passengers perished. Among the ill-fated passengers were the parents of petitioners, the spouses Perfecto Mecenas and Sofia Mecenas, whose bodies were never found despite intensive search by petitioners.
The sinking of MV Don Juan
Redeeming this savage jungle scene at the sea were some acts of heroism and humanitarianism. A priest was last seen helping small children pass through a porthole. A couple of nuns in brown habits were last seen distributing life jackets. A crew member was doing the same. His lifeless body was later identified by one of his benefactors. Some passengers returned to their cabins for their trapped relatives and were never seen again.
As the ship began to sink, people jumped into the cold sea-some with life belts, some without. Some hit those ahead of them perhaps drowning the latter. Those who hesitated to jump were pushed out to the sea by those behind.
A Catholic priest, Fr. Deotao seeing many dying around conducted a general absorption before jumping into the sea. Luckily, he survived. The ship listed from side to side like toys pinning some passengers, perhaps-to death.
Some without live belts waited until water breast deep and clung to floating objects around. One survivor, not the ship captain, claimed to be the last man to abandon the sinking ship. According to him, he climbed the highest portion of the vessel and waited until the water was knee deep and seeing a floating plank, he jumped onto it. Another man, after jumping into the sea, was sucked deep but an unknown force pushed him back to the surfaced of the sea.
The sea scene
After the sea sunk, people scattered around the sea surface. Many were on the life boats and rafts filled to capacity. In some rafts, the people trying to cling to their sides were inhospitably pushed away by their occupants. In others, they were kindly treated. One man with a life vest was floating when a life boat passed by. He asked in English: Is there still a room for me? An occupant shouted at him: "Mapatay ka na English ka pa (you are about to die, you are still speaking English)." Happily, he was accommodated.
We're Digging a bit Deep..
I can't recount the events because I was less than a year old at the time.
I was on the last trip of that ship heading from Bacolod to Manila. I was on my way to visit my aunt who lived there.
Or so I was told..
I'd like to note the last quote in the article.
Stupid fuckin Filipinos.
Posted by sagien at April 21, 2006 05:45 AMDidn't you used to make fun of people? Or at the very least, I don't know, mention how miserable your life was to make other people feel better about themselves?
What is this crap? Now you're going to tell me that Celiene Dion dedicated her Titanic theme song to you?
Posted by: Clarus at April 21, 2006 08:39 AMjust goes to show ya... negro's are horrible navigators. ive been saying it for years.
Posted by: dirt. at April 21, 2006 11:31 AM