Sawt Falasteen - Philippine Coast Guard battles smoke in search for ferry fire missing

The fire that tore through the M/V June Aster on Wednesday evening near the tourist hotspot of Coron, Palawan has killed at least five people, while another 84, including the ship's captain and chief engineer, remain unaccounted for.

"Everything happened in seconds," coast guard spokeswoman Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said in a radio interview Friday.

"From the time that they heard the loud explosion, the appearance of smoke, and then fire. It spread very quickly," she said of survivors' accounts, adding those who made it off the ship had not even had time to put on life jackets.

The still-smouldering ferry, which originally departed from Manila, sits about a kilometre from Coron after running aground just off a smaller island.

"There's still smoke coming out from different sections," Cayabyab said, adding that coast guard personnel intended to enter the ship and conduct firefighting operations.

Myra Cabilan told AFP she had flown to Coron on Friday to find her missing brother, 40-year-old Rammel Gonzaga, who had taken the ferry on a business trip with his brother-in-law.

"I didn't know he had made the trip," Cabilan said, explaining she only found out later from his wife.

"His wife had just given birth a month ago. He was so happy he was given a daughter," she said, fighting back tears.

"At dawn, I still believed he survived. But he's still missing. I have lost hope."

Updates about the search for survivors have trickled out slowly, while the death toll has remained unchanged since late Wednesday.

Hundreds of people desperate for news about the incident have taken to leaving comments on the Facebook page of a local mayor, searching for relatives, friends and even a dog.

The ferry's manifest listed 134 passengers and crew. It was also carrying goods, an electric vehicle, a pickup truck and motorcycles.

Of the 43 rescued, 30 were passengers and 13 were crew, the coast guard said. The identity of another survivor was not immediately clear.

The company that owns the ferry, Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc, said it was fully cooperating with the investigation.

"We are working around the clock and have mobilised all available resources to manage this crisis," the company said in a statement.

The archipelago nation of 116 million has a long history of disasters involving the inter-island ferries that ply its seas.

Many rely on cheap and poorly regulated boats and ships for transport between the country's more than 7,000 islands, despite regular accidents.

In January, a triple-decker ferry carrying more than 340 people sank off the southern Philippines, killing at least 52 people.

The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 sank along nearly the same route where 31 people died in 2023 after a fire broke out aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry.

W.Mansour--SF-PST