Manila - Divers from two salvage firms finished on Sunday retrieval of 10 tons of hazardous pesticide endosulfan from a sunken ferry in the central Philippines, a senior official said. Transportation Undersecretary Elena Bautista said the recovery of endosulfan from the sunken passenger ferry Princess of the Stars in the seas off Sibuyan Island, 300 kilometres south of Manila, was completed Sunday afternoon.
Bautista said the divers will next start recovering four other toxic pesticides, although in smaller volumes, still stuck in the cargo bay of the ill-fated ferry which sank in June after it was battered by a powerful typhoon.
After the toxic chemicals are retrieved the divers will focus on retrieving the more than 100,000 litres of bunker fuel in the ship's fuel tank, Bautista said.
The divers will also help in recovering hundreds of dead bodies believed to be still trapped inside the ferry. Out of the more than 800 people aboard the Princess of the Stars, only over 200 bodies have been recovered.
The sinking of the Princess of the Stars was one of the worst ferry disasters in the Philippines.
The Philippines is the site of the world's worst peacetime shipping accident, which occurred in 1987 when a passenger ferry collided with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.
