The death toll from a passenger ferry fire off the western Philippines rose to 35 on Friday as rescue crews recovered 30 more bodies from the burned wreck of the MV June Aster. Fifty-four people remain missing following the disaster, which erupted late Wednesday night near Coron in Palawan province.
Recovery Efforts and Vessel Damage Near Coron
Rescue operations faced severe obstacles on Thursday as heavy heat and smoke trapped inside the hull slowed down the search for victims. By Friday, authorities confirmed the death toll had climbed to 35 after search teams retrieved 30 bodies from the vessel. According to coast guard spokeswoman Commodore Noemie Cayabyab, thirty of those recovered bodies were loaded directly onto a patrol boat. Asked if more victims remained inside the ship, Cayabyab told reporters Yes, there are more.
Photographs and footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard depicted the gutted interior of the 53-meter vessel, showing charred metal, thick layers of ash, a burned car, and the remains of victims. Coast guard officials noted that many of the burned bodies were discovered specifically within the ship’s economy accommodations. Police forensic investigators subsequently examined the recovered remains to assist with recovery and identification.
Manifest Discrepancies and Survivor Accounts
The ferry had departed from the capital city of Manila and was roughly 4.5 miles off the village of Turda, near its destination of Coron in Palawan province, when the fire broke out. According to the official manifest, 134 people were on board, consisting of 117 passengers and 17 crew members. The vessel held a maximum capacity of 306 passengers and 27 crew. Coast guard authorities reported that two passengers listed on the manifest later confirmed they failed to board the ship.
Survivors described a chaotic and rapid evacuation as the flames consumed the ship. Arnulfo Nokki Villanueva, one of the survivors, described the sudden onset of the disaster in a broadcast interview.
Villanueva ultimately escaped by jumping from a window. Rachel Conserman, a staffer for ship owner Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc., stated that two tourists from Chile were among the 43 survivors and were recovering from their injuries at a local hospital in Coron. No other foreign nationals were reported to be on board.
Families Await News at Rescue Centers
At a rescue center in Turda, relatives of missing passengers gathered to await updates. Lira Daco waited for information regarding her 20-year-old daughter, Cyriel, whose final moments were spent on a video call before the connection was abruptly severed. Daco expressed the deep anguish shared by many families seeking answers from authorities.
Families expressed frustration regarding communication channels. Reporting from Manila, Al Jazeera journalist Jamela Alindogan noted that relatives found more reliable information through fellow survivors than through the ferry company directly, adding that much of the information from the government and private sector was heavily controlled.
Safety Record and Maritime Context
Maritime transport remains an essential and affordable network across the Philippine archipelago, where long-distance ferry routes connect remote islands. Alindogan noted that a journey from Manila to the western provinces takes over a day and costs about $50, compared with a flight costing roughly $100.
However, the nation’s ferry network has a history of deadly accidents driven by severe weather, vessel maintenance issues, overcrowding, and inconsistent safety enforcement. The incident marks the latest in a series of maritime disasters in the region. The MV June Aster tragedy also occurred along a route close to where a fire broke out aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 in 2023, killing 31 people, and echoes the 1987 sinking of the Dona Paz, which collided with a fuel tanker to become the world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster with more than 4,300 dead.
While the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, the Maritime Industry Authority noted that survivor accounts pointed to two successive explosions heard inside the ship just before the blaze erupted.
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