At least five people have died and 86 others are missing after a passenger ferry caught fire while approaching Coron in the Philippine province of Palawan, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.
The MV June Aster had departed Manila carrying 117 passengers and 17 crew members. It was close to Coron, a popular tourist destination, when the blaze began at about 18:00 local time on Wednesday.
Coastguard video released on Wednesday night showed flames covering the vessel as people were pulled from the water into rescue boats. Authorities said 43 people had been rescued, though the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
The fire was still burning at 11:00 on Thursday as crews worked in difficult conditions. Strong currents and poor weather were complicating both firefighting and search operations, the coastguard said.
Search affected by currents
A coastguard spokesperson said the ferry had moved significantly from its original distress position, which was about four nautical miles off Barangay Turda. It had later drifted to a point 7.68 nautical miles away, carried farther out by the current.
Survivors were brought to an evacuation centre in Barangay Turda, north of Marcilla. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and the coastguard said it had not yet been able to speak to those rescued.
A first responder involved in taking casualties to hospital described the incident as heartbreaking and said the ferry had been about an hour from Coron when the emergency unfolded.
Families await information
Relatives of those unaccounted for were seeking updates from hospitals, local news pages and the coastguard’s social-media posts. Anelyn Magbanua said her husband, Marlon, was aboard the ferry after visiting their children in Manila. She said he remained missing after she went to a hospital in Coron to look for him among the survivors.
Rai Garcia said three family friends, including a couple and their three-year-old daughter travelling home to El Nido in Palawan, were also missing. Their relatives had circulated an appeal for information using a photograph taken aboard the vessel.
Maritime accidents are relatively common in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands where inter-island ferries are widely used for passenger and cargo travel. Severe weather, monsoon rains and typhoons can create hazardous conditions, while previous incidents have also been linked to maintenance failures and uneven safety enforcement. In 2023, 31 people died in a ferry fire in the country’s south-west.
Source: BBC News
