At Least 18 Dead After Ferry Sinks Off Basilan in Southern Philippines
At least 18 people died after a ferry carrying 359 passengers and crew sank early Monday off Basilan in the southern Philippines, with 316 rescued and about 24 still missing, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The vessel encountered technical problems and tilted suddenly in good weather shortly after leaving Zamboanga for Jolo, Commander Romel Dua told The Associated Press.
The steel-hulled M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 abruptly listed to one side and took on water about a nautical mile from Baluk-Baluk island village after midnight, coast guard officials reported. A safety officer aboard the ferry was the first to alert authorities to deploy rescue vessels, and both onboard safety marshals survived the incident, according to Dua. The vessel had been cleared at Zamboanga port prior to departure with no signs of overloading, Dua added in comments to the news agency.
Passenger Mohamad Khan described being separated from his six-month-old baby during the chaos that hurled people into the sea. “My wife lost hold of our baby and all of us got separated at sea,” Khan said in remarks captured on video. The baby drowned while Khan and his wife were rescued, according to volunteer Gamar Alih, a Zamboanga village councilor who posted the footage to Facebook after joining the search because relatives had been aboard the ferry and all survived.
Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman said he met 37 arriving people at the pier in the provincial capital of Isabela, where two were already dead. “I’m receiving 37 people here in the pier. Unfortunately two are dead,” Hataman stated during a cellphone interview from the site. Ambulances stood by to handle the survivors and deceased, the governor reported.
Coast guard and navy ships, supported by a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fishing boats, continued searching for the missing into Monday afternoon, Dua stated. Authorities were also reviewing unverified reports that 15 passengers on the manifest had decided against boarding and received fare refunds, which if confirmed would adjust the number of those unaccounted for, he explained. The total aboard had been listed as 332 passengers and 27 crew, according to the commander.
Maritime accidents occur frequently in the Philippine archipelago because of storms, badly maintained vessels, overcrowding and inconsistent enforcement of safety rules especially in remote provinces, the Associated Press reported. The sinking of the Dona Paz in December 1987 after a collision with a tanker remains the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster with more than 4,300 deaths, historical accounts show. From 2015 to 2020 the Philippine Coast Guard recorded 4,467 maritime accidents in the country’s waters, a spatial analysis published in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information found.
The Philippines posted the highest absolute casualty rate for maritime incidents in East Asia between 2000 and 2012, according to the same 2025 study. Officials have not yet determined the precise cause of the Trisha Kerstin 3 sinking and have launched a formal investigation, Dua said. Search efforts were set to persist until all those missing are accounted for, coast guard statements indicated.
