Death toll from Philippines ferry fire rises to 35, as officials warn toll will grow — SkimNews
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- M/V June Aster ran aground near Coron, Palawan after a fire that began in the cargo hold on Wednesday evening tore through the vessel "in seconds," killing at least 35 people.
- Philippine coast guard spokesperson Noemie Cayabyab confirmed 30 bodies were recovered from the ship's economy accommodation area, while 30 passengers and 13 crew were rescued and 54 people remain unaccounted for.
- Cayabyab said additional cadavers remained aboard the ferry beyond the 30 transferred by patrol vessel, with police forensic investigators arriving at the port to begin identification before families are notified.
- Survivor Myra Cabilan flew to Coron searching for her missing 40-year-old brother Rammel Gonzaga, a Manila businessman whose wife had given birth a month earlier; hundreds of others have flooded a local mayor's Facebook page seeking relatives — and a missing dog.
- Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc, the ferry's owner, said it is fully cooperating with the investigation; survivors told officials they had no time to put on lifejackets before the flames engulfed the ship.
- The ferry's manifest listed 134 crew and passengers (two never boarded), and the vessel was also carrying cargo including an electric vehicle, a pickup truck, and motorcycles.
- The Philippines, an archipelago of 116 million and more than 7,000 islands, has a long history of inter-island ferry disasters involving poorly regulated vessels.
Why it matters: With 54 people still unaccounted for and additional bodies confirmed still aboard the M/V June Aster, this fire is on track to become one of the deadliest inter-island ferry disasters in the Philippines, where survivors had seconds to escape before the ship was engulfed — and where cheap, poorly regulated ferries remain the primary transport link between islands.
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