Fifteen dead, 28 missing as ferry sinks in southern Philippines

The MV Trisha Kerstin 3 issued a distress signal around 1:50 am (1750 GMT Sunday), a bit over four hours after it departed the Port of Zamboanga City on the southwestern tip of Mindanao, the coast guard said in a statement.

At least 316 people had so far been rescued, Romel Dua, a coast guard commander, told AFP, with 15 confirmed dead and 28 still unaccounted for.

"A coast guard aircraft is also on the way to help the operation. The Navy and Air Force also sent their assets," Dua, who is based in southern Mindanao, told AFP.

The ferry went down about five kilometres east of Baluk-Baluk Island, part of the Basilan province chain of islands off the Zamboanga peninsula.

Basilan emergency responder Ronalyn Perez told AFP rescuers were struggling to handle the sudden influx of survivors.

"The challenge really is the number of patients that are coming in. We are short-staffed at the moment," Perez said, adding at least 18 had been brought to one local hospital.

"The ferry was sailing from Zamboanga City to Jolo island when the incident happened," she added.

Video released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed survivors being plucked from the water and receiving medical attention.

Survivors could be heard shouting for help in the dark in one live video on Facebook.

"We cannot say for now the reason of the sinking, but we were instructed to conduct a marine casualty investigation to determine the cause," Dua said.

"As of now, we are focused on the rescue."

Survivors were being brought to the coast guard stations in Zamboanga and Isabela City, he added.

In its statement, the coast guard said the ferry had not been overloaded.

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 2023, more than 30 people were killed when a fire ripped through a ferry in the southern Philippines.