Coron ferry fire: 76 dead and identification measured in months

Forensic teams in Coron, Palawan, said on 13 September that identifying the dead from the M/V June Aster fire could take weeks or months. The death toll stands at 76. Thirteen people remain unaccounted for. Forty-three people survived. The ferry had been carrying 132 passengers and crew, including 17 crew members, from Manila to Coron when fire broke out about 18:45 on 10 September, 2.2 kilometres off Marcilla on Coron Island, near the end of a journey that normally lasts about 20 hours. Two people listed on the manifest had not boarded.

The count rose in pieces. Rescuers first found five bodies, then 30 more on Friday, then 41 charred remains on Saturday, Commodore Noemi Cayabyab of the Philippine Coast Guard said. The ship drifted nearly eight nautical miles from the first distress point. It now sits grounded about 7.5 kilometres off Coron. Some remains were clustered inside the hull. Others were scattered. Some people jumped without lifejackets. Flooded lower decks and the engine room have not been fully searched. Cayabyab said the figure may still change.

Richard Allan Mangalip of the Philippine National Police forensic service said most remains are charred and that he cannot give a firm identification timetable. It could be weeks, or it could be much longer. One-metre graves have been prepared for temporary burial until DNA matching is finished, tourism official Kristine Ablana said. Tents at Borac port in Coron have become the intake point. Relatives wait while teams carry bags from Coast Guard boats.

Anelyn Magbanua, 37, told reporters her husband was coming home to Coron after visiting their children in Manila. Two of the rescued passengers were Chilean. Thirty passengers and 13 crew were pulled from the water the night of the fire. Many remain in hospital.

Investigators have not named a cause. A Maritime Industry Authority statement, citing survivors, said two explosions were heard before the fire. Cayabyab said the blaze began in a cargo hold and that wind helped it move. Survivors described thick black smoke and a crush of people. The ferry was built in 2002, held valid safety certificates and passed an enforcement inspection in March. Officials are checking the manifest, cargo stowage and the crew's emergency drill.

Philippine inter-island ferries carry people and cargo on the same decks because that is how the archipelago moves. When a hold fire starts near the end of a 20-hour run, passengers are tired, close to port and unprepared for a jump in the dark. Coron is a tourist town. The June Aster was a workboat for families and crew who live on that route. The gap between a March inspection and a September fire is now the file for the Maritime Industry Authority and the Coast Guard.

Identification is the immediate state task. DNA from charred bone is slow. Personal effects help only when they survive. Temporary graves keep the remains in one place so that later matches can still produce a name and a burial the family accepts. Until that work is done, the number 76 is a count of bodies, not a list of people.

Thirteen missing persons keep the operation in two modes at once: recovery on the wreck and search in the water. If flooded compartments hold more remains, the toll will rise again. If they do not, the missing stay on a separate list. Either outcome will be argued as a failure of inspection, cargo rules or crew training. The facts that can already be stated are narrower. A certified ship burned within sight of its destination. Seventy-six people are dead. Forty-three are alive. The engine room has not yet been fully read. That unread room is where the cause still sits.