Manila: Calls are growing for ferry operations in the Philippines to be nationalized in the wake of the latest disaster which is likely to have claimed more than 100 lives.

The Philippine Coast Guard said late yesterday its search and rescue work will switch to become recovery and retrieval of bodies 48 hours after the grim collision between the Sulpicio Express 7 cargo ship and the ferry MV St Thomas Aquinas, the latter sinking quickly after being struck.

Nasty weather has hampered the search and rescue effort as well as the clean up with 120,000 litres of bunker fuel from the ferry potentially hitting the beaches of the central island of Cebu.

As of 5am local time 38 were confirmed dead and another 82 missing in the latest ferry disaster to have struck the Philippines, a nation with the horrendous claim to have suffered the worst maritime disaster in peace time with the sinking of the Dona Paz in the 1980s taking some 4,300 lives.

With maritime disasters all too common in the archiplelago, including previous mishaps involving the two companies involved in Friday’s disaster, 2Go and Sulpicio, there have been calls for ferry operations to be brough under government control.