Philippines Ferry Fire Off Palawan Kills 5, Leaves More Than 80 Missing

A passenger ferry sailing from Manila to the tourist town of Coron caught fire late Wednesday night off Palawan province, killing at least five people and leaving dozens more unaccounted for as of Thursday, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

The MV June Aster had 134 people aboard, 117 passengers and 17 crew, coast guard spokeswoman Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said in a radio interview reported by the Associated Press. The fire broke out roughly 2.2 kilometers northeast of Barangay Marcilla, close enough to shore that survivors were ferried to an evacuation center in nearby Barangay Turda.

Rescue counts have shifted through the morning as crews worked. Cayabyab put the number rescued at 42, including 38 passengers and four crew, according to Al Jazeera, while Reuters reported 43 rescued as of Wednesday night. The Guardian also cited a figure of 43. Cayabyab told reporters the numbers were "live data" that could keep moving as search and rescue operations continued.

Based on the manifest, survivor count and confirmed deaths, the coast guard estimated 86 to 87 people remained missing, according to Al Jazeera, Euronews and the Times of India. That math leaves a gap authorities have not fully explained, and Cayabyab herself cautioned the figures are preliminary.

Crews have not yet been able to board the burned-out hull. Thick smoke, extreme heat and the risk of explosion have kept rescuers back, Cayabyab told the Guardian. Drone footage released by the coast guard showed a blackened vessel still smoking hours after the fire started, drifting from its original position as currents and wind pushed it further offshore.

The search now includes a coast guard cutter, high-speed response boats, a military vessel, other government craft, and volunteer fishermen, according to Euronews. Rescue teams are using drift-modeling tools to predict where passengers may have been carried by currents, the Guardian reported.

Among those pulled from the water were two Chilean nationals, Palawan coast guard spokesperson Aileen Ausente told the Guardian. No other information about foreign nationals aboard has been confirmed. Air assets were on standby to assist, weather permitting.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. No source has reported an investigation timeline or preliminary findings, and the Philippine Coast Guard has not named a suspected mechanical or human cause.

Ferries remain a primary mode of travel across the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands where millions of people depend on boats to move between provinces, the Guardian noted. The country's maritime safety record has long been shaky, with overcrowding, rough weather and inconsistent enforcement of safety rules cited repeatedly as factors in past disasters, according to both the Guardian and Al Jazeera.

Euronews and Al Jazeera both pointed to a January 2026 sinking involving a triple-decker ferry as recent precedent, though the two outlets gave different casualty figures. Al Jazeera reported a ferry carrying more than 350 people sank off Baluk-baluk island in January, killing at least 18. Euronews described a separate-sounding incident, the MV Trisha Kerstin 3, a triple-decker carrying more than 340 people that sank along a similar southern Philippine route, killing at least 52. Euronews also noted that route was close to where the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry fire killed 31 people in 2023. The discrepancy in death tolls between the two January reports is unresolved in the available reporting.

Whether Philippine ferry operators are being held to the safety standards they're supposed to follow remains unclear. Enforcement gaps documented in past disasters appear to be recurring. None of the coast guard's public statements so far address vessel maintenance records, fire suppression equipment, or crew training aboard the June Aster specifically.

With dozens still missing and Coron's town mayor's Facebook page flooded with relatives searching for word on loved ones, search teams continue working to find survivors before conditions or time make that impossible. The Philippine Coast Guard has not set a timeline for when it expects to board the wreck or close out the search.