The Day the City of Smiles Wept by Dominic Alojado, MD
Around 1 pm of April 22, 1980, a jam-packed M/S Don Juan of Negros Navigation (NN) carrying at least 1,000 passengers, left Pier 2 at the Manila North Harbor. It was bound for Bacolod City. Within her are vacationers, students coming home after graduation or a break in big universities in Manila, families of wealthy and illustrious Negrenses, who accompanied newly bought cars in its cargo and businessmen with bulk of their goods.
The Don Juan was famous for its cruising speed, cutting traveling time to 18-19 hours for a Manila-Bacolod trip which was usually 22-24 hours on other vessels at that time. It featured the elegant “Admiral Class” Cabins. A signature of first class travel for NN’s fleet. It was the first of its kind to have watertight cabin and compartment doors.
At 10:30 pm the vessel was traveling beneath a full-moon over the calm Tablas Strait between Tablas and Maestre de Campo Island with most of the passengers asleep. The rest were awake having a great time with the band at the ferry’s disco. But all of a sudden it was rammed hard on its portside by oil tanker M/T Tacloban City of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC). It left a large gaping hole from its lower deck bunks to the Admiral Class Cabin decks. The impact jammed most of the cabin doors sealing the fate of their occupants. Fortunate ones were on the Economy Class upper decks and disco-goers. It didn’t take long and Don Juan took in seawater, listed hard to the portside then dipped forward. Screaming, terrified and wailing passengers even without life-jackets jumped to the sea.
The crew frantically handed out life-jackets and tried to put them into lifeboats. Collapsible lifeboats were released for those already at sea. But time was too short. In 15-20 minutes Don Juan was swallowed by the sea, with it were dozens still trapped in cabins and bunks, crew members who held to their posts and those already in lifeboats but were never released on time.
Hundreds of survivors thrashed and called for help for in the shark-infested waters. The crew of the tanker Tacloban plucked out as many survivors as they could and those killed instantly by the impact. After two hours, another PNOC tanker, M/T Laoag City, arrived after Don Juan’s distress call and took the remaining survivors and more corpses. Smaller ships and fishing vessels within its vicinity also came and helped out. Most of the survivors were brought to the port of Batangas in the morning, April 23, 1980.
Bacolod City and the rest of Negros Occidental were shocked. It came very untimely when the province was suffering from the fall of worldwide sugar prices that heralded the collapse of the monocrop sugar industry of the province.”
Survivors of Don Juan Tragedy
Joeval Brodit came from a national dancing competition on a famous noontime TV show. He was at the disco during the collision. He jostled and was able to take a life-jacket but it was grabbed off from him by a panicking passenger. While at the sea, he huddled together with a dozen more survivors on a capsized collapsible lifeboat. But he was one of those instant heroes who swam back to the sea and grabbed more survivors. One of them was Sharon Tumaliuan of Iloilo City and the story landed him on the front page of Manila Bulletin. It was so sad that some of the dead he retrieved were young students, others just graduated from high school and college.
Dr. Linda Sanson, an OB-Gyne traveling with her three toddlers and two babysitters after buying stocks for her boutique in Bacolod, instantly got out of the cabin and grabbed two lifejackets in which they shared together until rescued.
Ethel Ferrer, an elementary school teacher at the University of St. La Salle (USLS), was pregnant and traveling with her eldest son. She got separated from her son while at sea but was miraculously reunited with him after an hour despite the panic and swimming with sharks.
Jocelyn Panisa and her twin brothers Jesus and Reynaldo were traveling home from a wedding with their uncle. They boarded the vessel as “chance passengers” and were at the economy class upper deck. Three of them survived clinging on the sides an overloaded lifeboat but their uncle was unlucky to be on a lifeboat that never came off the ship.
Those Who Did Not Make It
Mother of lawyer Renecito Novero. She attended her son’s (Atty. Novero) graduation from law school at UP and took the trip home;
Alunan Family, a pride of Bacolod in the field of swimming remained missing and believed to be trapped inside one of Don Juan’s cabins;
Montalvo Family: Nora Montalvo wife of then mayor Jose Montalvo of Bacolod their daughters Mylene, 17; and Yvette, 7; and mother-in-law, Anicia Kilayko, were never found and believed to have died inside their cabins. It was remembered by the Bacolodnon’s that the mayor was at a sorrowful state traveling to Northern Negros, Capiz and as far as Romblon and Oriental Mindoro to look for his missing family members. As described by some “he would open every casket, body bag and blanket and call out their names”.
Take note, that it was M/T Tacloban which rammed M/S Don Juan, and not the other way around. In other words, Don Juan was in the right course. It is M/T Tacloban’s captain and crew which should bear the guilt of this tragedy.
My aunt Ma. Elena PETISME RIOLO is also in this tragedy. She was a teacher.She never been found. Someone told my dad that if she didn’t return back to cabins she’s alive but because she tried to go back to find one of her student .. we missed her .
I am a survivor of Don Juan
My sister and I were tasked to check the local funeral homes in Bacolod for our missing relatives. Some of the bodies were just laid out on the floor and covered with white powder or lime to slow the process of decomposition. Such a sad day indeed and as for me and my sister, the images of the dead would haunt us in our dreams for a long time.
Our neighbor in Sipalay lost her 3 children and the whole barangay was in sad state when the funeraria’s vehicle brought her dead children in their home.
Nakakalungkot ang mga pangyayari. Bagamat ito ay naging inspirasyon para mabuo ang “MassKara Festival”. Maraming buhay mn ang nawala at Maraming pamilya ang nalungkot. Ang Kaganapang ito ay nakatatak na sa pusot Isip ng bawat Negrense.
My mom passed away in this tragedy. I was 5 years old at the time. It’s still hard to accept it to this day.
Victorias, a city 34 km away north of Bacolod wasnt spared by this tragedy. A considerable number of Victoriahanons was on board MV Don Juan to catch the annual Fiesta on the 26th of April. Among the testimonies heard from Victorias surviviors, they hung on to planks of wood or large objects in the sea to keep them afloat. For days without drinking water and food and awaiting rescue, they sucked on the cloth scapular and miraculous medal strings on their chests and called on the Blessed Mother’s help. She didn’t fail them.
My mother and eldest sister are also in this ship. my father recovered my mother’s body, but
my sister is still missing until now. They were travelling with my mother’s sister and her son and two of my uncles. But they all survived.
My mother Flordeliza Padernal and my sister Helen Padernal 7 years old that time.
I hope those reponsible will pay for their negligence in this life, or the next.
Capt. Rogelio Santisteban, was playing mahjong at the time of collision, and the officer on watch, Senior Third Mate Rogelio De Vera, admitted that he failed to call the attention of Santisteban to the imminent danger facing them. This Court found that Capt. Santisteban and the crew of the M/V Don Juan failed to take steps to prevent the collision or at least delay the sinking of the ship and supervise the abandoning of the ship.
Petitioner Negros Navigation was found equally negligent in tolerating the playing of mahjong by the ship captain and other crew members while on board the ship and failing to keep the M/V Don Juan seaworthy so much so that the ship sank within 10 to 15 minutes of its impact with the M/T Tacloban City.
Source:
http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1997/nov1997/gr_110398_1997.html
The ARBOLEDA Family lost 5 members: Lola Agustin’a S. Arboleda, Cynthia Arboleda-Hinolan,, age 22, Cedar, 12, Christian,, 10 and Jude, 8. Their nanny, Rosemarie, also perished with them.
It has been 37 years but still we have get over this tremendous loss.
This was a great tragedy for the Arboleda family. We lost our grandmother, Agustina S, Arboleda, my sister, Cynthia Arboleda- Hinolan, who accompanied our Lola for a medical checkup at the Philippine Heart Center. My sister was a nurse married to Dr. Anthony Hinolan, a surgeon and later became Chief of Hospital in Valladolud.ÿ Joining them on the trip back home to Bacolod, were three of our cousins, young boys looking forward to spend their summer vacation with our grandparents and cousin. Their names were Cesar, Christiaan and Jude. Also lost with them was Rosemarie,their nanny. Rest in eternal peace. Always in our hearts…
I hope they can make a movie out of this just like titanic but more focused on the history of negros and the event
ik right they should show it at the meuseum after covis
I was very young at the time and my sister was among the missing until today. She was traveling with my aunt back to Bacolod for a visit. My aunt perished
yep…grade 4 kita when that hppened…
talaga Mhar?
my father and I are survivors of don juan tragedy….i was 10 years old then…still the memory remains fresh til now…
I never heard of this tragedy before. I was born. in 1987. But thank you for sharing this, I get a glimpse of that part of history. Hope people have learned so much from the incident.
yes, the Jose and Linda Alunan Family, the only one who survived was their daughter Anne
Sad memories for your family. May relatives ka gali to. 🙁
May their soul rest in peace
I survived the tragedy and consider 22 april my second birthday. Looking back, it would have been avoided had the captain been doing his duties. The accident would have been avoided, i hope the later generations learn from the truth so it will not be repeated and they will be more vigilant. Let us not forget it.
Among those having a great time that night when the tanker rammed Don Juan was the captain and other crew members. Let us not forget that, nor white-wash it. It is an insult to the memory of those who perished.
This article failed to mention the real cause that claimed hundreds of lives–the captain was playing mahjong and he left the ship under the command of his incompetent subordinates. The tanker and MV Don Juan crew already spotted each other as far as 6 miles away, yet they failed to avoid each other in time to avert disaster. Why? You guessed it. Nobody at the wheel knew what they were doing. Just like that.
I hope those reponsible will pay for their negligence in this life, or the next.
Capt. Rogelio Santisteban, was playing mahjong at the time of collision, and the officer on watch, Senior Third Mate Rogelio De Vera, admitted that he failed to call the attention of Santisteban to the imminent danger facing them. This Court found that Capt. Santisteban and the crew of the M/V Don Juan failed to take steps to prevent the collision or at least delay the sinking of the ship and supervise the abandoning of the ship.
Petitioner Negros Navigation was found equally negligent in tolerating the playing of mahjong by the ship captain and other crew members while on board the ship and failing to keep the M/V Don Juan seaworthy so much so that the ship sank within 10 to 15 minutes of its impact with the M/T Tacloban City.
Source:
http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1997/nov1997/gr_110398_1997.html
RIP Tita Pingping (Faith Ayala Vinson), wherever you may be…
I hope every Negrense, especially the Bacolodnons remember this as one of the turning points of tyhe history of Bacolod City