Philippine ferry fire death toll rises to 35 after crews board the June Aster

Search teams boarded the burned hull of MV June Aster on Friday morning and lifted 30 bodies from the economy accommodation. The Philippine Coast Guard then put the confirmed death toll at 35. About 54 passengers and crew were still unaccounted for when the last official count of the day closed.

The 174-foot roll-on, roll-off ferry left Manila at 8.13 p.m. on Tuesday, 8 September, bound for Coron in Palawan. It carried 117 ticketed passengers and 17 crew. Two names on the manifest later told officials they had never boarded, which trimmed the missing list from 86 to 84 and then, after the recoveries, to the mid-50s.

Fire was reported at 6.45 p.m. on Wednesday, about 2.2 to 4.5 miles off Barangay Turda, close to the planned arrival. Survivors told coast guard interviewers that the blaze appeared to start in the cargo hold. Heat and smoke kept rescue teams off the vessel for more than 40 hours. The fire was declared under control around 10.15 a.m. on Friday. Boarding followed at about 11.30 a.m.

Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said retrieval using BRP Cape Engano began at 5.16 p.m. The remains, most of them badly burned, were due at the Port of Borac in Coron on Saturday morning. The Philippine National Police sent extra search teams. Oil-spill booms went into the water as a precaution. Officials said they found no sheen around the wreck.

Forty-three people have been accounted for as survivors. Seven were taken to hospital in Culion, which has more beds than Coron. Two of the injured were Chilean tourists, according to Rachel Conserman of Atienza Interisland Ferries, the owner. The captain survived. Four crew members were among the missing. Some passengers had no life jackets when they left the ship.

The vessel is licensed for 306 passengers and 27 crew. It was running well below that limit. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Interclaim staff were due in Coron on Saturday. The Maritime Industry Authority asked the Insurance Commission to press Western Guaranty Corporation, the vessel's insurer, to move claims without delay.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered agencies to support survivors and families. Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said the department would use every administrative lever it has so that compensation is not held up by paperwork. Local officials in Palawan opened a covered court in Turda as a first holding point for people pulled from the water.

Ferry fires are a familiar hazard on Philippine inter-island routes. Wooden fittings, packed cargo and night passages leave little time once a hold fire takes hold. The June Aster case will turn on how fast the alarm reached the bridge, whether cargo was stowed as declared, and why some passengers left without life jackets. Those answers sit with the coast guard inquiry and with MARINA's inspection file on the ship.

For families waiting in Coron, the next facts are simpler. Identification of the 30 bodies recovered on Friday. A continuing search in a widened area with divers and one of the coast guard's larger ships. And a Saturday start to insurance processing that will decide how quickly the 43 known survivors and the families of the dead can be paid.

The numbers may still move. Retrieval from a burned hull is slow, and some of those listed as missing may never be found at sea. What is already fixed is the sequence: a night fire off a tourist island, two days of heat that kept rescuers off the deck, and a death toll that jumped from five to 35 in a single afternoon once the cabins could be entered.