Three people were killed and 162 were missing after a passenger boat caught fire in central Philippine seas, the coastguard said yesterday.
MV Rosario II sent out a distress signal hours after leaving the port of Cebu early on Saturday for nearby Masbate province, Commander Clinio Yalaw, duty officer at coastguard headquarters in Manila said.
The ferry, owned by Lapu-Lapu Shipping Lines, was four nautical miles off the shores of Cataingan pier in Masbate when its engine was reported to have caught fire, causing panic among the boat's 210 passengers and 28 crew members, many of whom jumped into the sea without life jackets, Mr Yalaw said.
Passengers Maximo Bulon, Aniano Tumangan and Nonito Abacador drowned while 73 survivors, including seven crew members, were rescued by the coastguard, he added. One hundred and sixty-two people were still unaccounted for although the coastguard received unconfirmed reports that many were rescued by fishermen. Earlier reports had placed the total number of passengers at 200, but a check with its manifesto showed there were 238 aboard, 28 of them crew members, he said.
The 236-ton vessel, which can carry more than 400 passengers, "was already old", Mr Yalaw said, although its owners have said it was in good condition.
"Search and rescue are continuing and I will be monitoring it from here overnight. The coastguard there is having a hard time accounting for the people missing, but there have been reports many of them have been plucked out from sea by fishermen," he stressed.
One coastguard vessel will be working overnight in an attempt to search for more survivors. He could not say how many people were involved in the search but said all coastguard personnel in the area were alerted of the accident.
"We hope there will be no more casualties. We are positive since if there had been more bodies, it would have washed to shore already considering that it was already four nautical miles away from its destination."
Authorities were also co-ordinating with volunteers and representatives of nearby coastal communities to verify these reports, he added.
A sister ship has towed the burnt MV Rosario II to the Cataingan pier, where maritime officials were examining it, Mr Yalaw said.
Last year, 51 people died when the Princess of the Orient ferry sank off the shore of Manila while in 1996, 50 people died in the sinking of another ferry, Gretchen I also in the central Philippines.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off the island of Mindoro, killing more than 4,000 people in what is described as the world's worst peacetime maritime tragedy.