A ferry carrying more than 350 people sank in rough seas off the southern Philippines early on Monday, killing at least 18 people and leaving 24 still missing, the coast guard said.
The MV Trisha Kerstin 3 sent out a distress signal at around 1:50 am (17:50 GMT on Sunday), just over four hours after departing from the Port of Zamboanga City, at the south-western tip of Mindanao, according to a coast guard statement.
Footage released by the governor of Basilan province showed barefoot survivors being wrapped in blankets and placed on stretchers, while the bodies of victims were carried past in body bags.
The triple-deck vessel sank on almost the same route where 31 people died in 2023 after a fire broke out aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry. Both vessels were owned by the locally based Aleson Shipping Lines.
At least 317 people have so far been rescued, according to the latest figures from the Philippine Coast Guard. Eighteen deaths have been confirmed, with 24 people still unaccounted for as search-and-rescue operations continue.
Sheryl Balondo, a rescuer in Isabela City—one of two municipalities receiving survivors—said her office had received more than 100 calls from anxious relatives.
“There’s a tug at our hearts whenever we answer a call. Their voices sound so worried,” she said. “All we can say for now is that we don’t yet have the final list of names, because the search and retrieval operation is still ongoing.”
The 44-metre (144-foot) ferry went down about five kilometres east of Baluk-Baluk Island, part of the Basilan island chain off the Zamboanga peninsula.
“Based on the accounts of some survivors, the waters in the area were rough at the time,” Philippine Coast Guard spokeswoman Noemie Cayabyab said in a televised interview.
Short-staffed rescuers
Basilan emergency responder Ronalyn Perez told AFP that rescue teams were struggling to cope with the number of survivors.
“The real challenge is the volume of patients arriving. We are short-staffed at the moment,” Perez said, adding that at least 18 people had been taken to one local hospital.
A video released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed survivors being pulled from the water and given medical treatment. In a live Facebook video, some could be heard shouting for help in the darkness.
“We cannot yet say what caused the sinking, but we have been instructed to conduct a marine casualty investigation to determine the reason,” said Romel Dua, a coast guard commander from southern Mindanao. “For now, our focus is on the rescue.”
Survivors were being taken to coast guard stations in Zamboanga City and Isabela City, he added.
In its statement, the coastguard said the ferry had not been overloaded.
“Our thoughts and hearts are with everyone who was on board,” Aleson Shipping Lines said, adding that it was “working tirelessly” in close coordination with the coast guard.
The Philippines, an archipelago of around 116 million people, has a long history of maritime disasters involving inter-island ferries.
Many passengers rely on cheap and poorly regulated boats and ships to travel between the country’s more than 7,000 islands, despite frequent accidents.
In 2015, a ferry capsized off the western coast of Leyte Island, killing more than 60 people.
In 1987, the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker in a pre-Christmas disaster that claimed more than 4,000 lives—the deadliest peacetime maritime accident in history.
