A Philippine ferry that sank in a typhoon will be refloated, officials said Wednesday, ditching a bid to use divers to retrieve hundreds of bodies and toxic pesticides some 11 days after the disaster.
Amid anger at the slow-moving recovery operation, the government and ferry owners abandoned plans to bore a hole in the 24,000-tonne vessel to pull out the bodies and agricultural chemicals that threaten the marine environment.
A salvage outfit hired to execute the plan, as well as Filipino and US military divers, have left the site off the central island of Sibuyan, Transportation and Communication Undersecretary Elena Bautista said.
"Subsea (the salvage firm) is pulling out because we will refloat the vessel," Bautista told AFP here.
While tests showed waters have not been contaminated with the endosulfan cargo, there was concern containers could corrode allowing the chemical to leach and contaminate the area.
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