Philippine Coast Guard raises the June Aster death toll from 35 to 76

The Philippine Coast Guard said on Saturday that 41 more human remains had been taken off the burned passenger-cargo vessel MV June Aster, lifting the confirmed death toll from 35 to 76. The remains of a dog were recovered in the same search. Thirteen people from the ship's ticket list of 134 are still missing. Two names on that list later told investigators they never boarded. Forty-three people survived.

Commodore Noemie Cayabyab, the Coast Guard spokesperson, said the 41 remains would move to Coron on Sunday aboard BRP Cape Engano. The first 30 bodies had already come ashore earlier on Saturday. Disaster agency workers were seen carrying coffins toward a cemetery in the resort town, where one-metre graves have been dug for temporary burial until DNA work is finished. Kristine Ablana, a tourism official acting as a local spokesperson, described that arrangement to reporters.

The June Aster caught fire on the evening of 9 September while sailing from Manila toward Coron in Palawan. The first report went out around 6:45 p.m. local time, about 1.2 nautical miles northeast of Barangay Marcilla. The wreck now sits grounded roughly 7.5 kilometres off the coast. Firefighters could not board until Friday because of heat and toxic fumes. Once they did, they found most of the dead in the sleeping berths of a ship that had been on a 22-hour run.

Survivors have said two explosions were heard before the fire tore through the cabins. The Coast Guard has not named a cause. Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc., the operator, has pledged cooperation and said the captain survived. Four crew members were listed missing in the company's early count. Thirty of the rescued passengers included two Chilean nationals. Thirteen crew members also made it off. Some survivors were not wearing life vests.

The arithmetic has shifted with each briefing. Early reports put 117 passengers and 17 crew on board. The ticket manifest now cited by the Coast Guard has 134 names. Subtract 76 confirmed dead, 43 survivors, and two people who never boarded, and 13 remain unaccounted for. Cayabyab warned that those figures can still move as identification continues.

Coron is a diving and island-hopping stop on the Palawan circuit. The fire hit at the edge of the tourist season and in the middle of a recovery that local officials must now run as a mass-casualty identification problem. Forensic teams from the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives are working with the Coast Guard. Families are waiting on DNA matches before the temporary graves can become named burials.

Philippine interisland ships have a long record of fire and overcrowding inquiries. This one will turn on how the blaze started, how fast the alarm reached sleeping passengers, and whether the vessel's firefighting gear worked. Those answers are not in Saturday's statement. What the statement does settle is the scale. A fire that began as a 35-dead accident is now a 76-dead wreck with a short list of names still missing and a cemetery already opened for the unidentified.