MANILA - DIVERS on Thursday struggled to get deep inside a a stricken Philippine ferry containing hundreds of bodies as officials warned it may take a month to recover all the corpses.

With just 15 bodies pulled out so far, concern is growing over the slow pace of recovery efforts, five days after the Princess of the Stars went down in the central Philippines in a typhoon.

Some 100 US and Filipino divers have been able to get into the ship but have been unable to reach dozens of bodies because the vessel's passages are blocked by debris, meaning they cannot get anywhere near the cabins.

'It will take a month to retrieve all the bodies,' said coastguard spokesman Jansen Benjamin.

'Divers have sighted many bodies but have not been able to retrieve them as the entrances and exits are blocked. Some of the cadavers are tangled in wires.'

The 24,000-tonne ferry capsized with about 800 feared dead. Just 57 survivors have been found out of more than 850 passengers and crew, making it one of the country's worst maritime disasters.

Philippine Navy records show that 15 bodies have been recovered from the interior of the submerged ferry while another 127 have been plucked from the waters off Sibuyan island or washed up on nearby beaches.

US and Philippine surveillance planes have reported seeing more bodies floating in the sea but the navy and coast guard, which operate limited and decrepit fleets, are not always able to pick them up.

Philippine Navy spokesman Edgardo Arevalo said on Wednesday a US P-3 Orion aircraft spotted a group of bodies grouped together on one island, but when the boats arrived at the scene, the corpses had drifted apart.

'Retrieval isn't that quick. You have to be realistic, you have to pick up one after the other. We are picking up the dead and the bodies are already falling apart,' he explained.

He said they were hampered by a lack of equipment, including body bags.

'They dropped some bags by helicopter but they weren't enough. We still have additional requests for lime, formaline, hand gloves and face masks.'

Frogmen will use tools to break open doors and windows but officials say it is too dangerous to cut holes in the ship's side as it may make the vessel shift and cause it to leak oil, causing major environmental problems.

Reports say the ferry could be carrying up to 25,000 litres of oil.

The tragedy has triggered outrage with President Gloria Arroyo personally reprimanding ferry operator Sulpicio Lines and the coast guard.

Grief-stricken relatives of those missing have also condemned Sulpicio Lines and the authorities for the failure to retrieve bodies quicker.

One angry relative climbed the communications tower at Sulpicio Lines' Manila office to voice relatives' 'anguish' at the slow pace of the recovery efforts.

A team of volunteer psychologists from the church-run University of Santo Tomas have been sent to the Manila port area to attempt to calm the relatives who have camped out in front of the Sulpico Lines office waiting for news of their loved ones, church officials said.

The recovered bodies are being taken to the central island of Cebu where they will be identified through DNA before being handed to their relatives.

Civil defence officials have appealed to residents of central islands to inform them of any bodies that might be washed up and asked them not to bury them, even if they are in an advanced state of decomposition. -- AFP

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