Philippines, fire on ferry MV June Aster: five dead, 87 people to be located

A story that the morning edition did not contain. On the evening of September 9 the passenger and cargo ferry MV June Aster caught fire off Coron, in the Philippine province of Palawan. On September 10 the Philippine Coast Guard reported 42 people rescued and 5 dead; in an update at 8:20 the survivors rose to 43 (GMA News Online; Channel NewsAsia).

The vessel’s manifest listed 134 people: 117 passengers and 17 crew members. The ship had departed from Baseco, in Manila, bound for Coron.

Why the numbers must be read together with the date and time

The Coast Guard indicates 87 people still to be located. The material available does not specify at what point in the morning that count refers to, nor does it explicitly relate it to the rise from 42 to 43 rescued: we therefore publish the figure as released by the source, without redoing our own calculations and without attributing to it a time that the sources do not give.

This is the reason why, in ongoing rescue events, every number is valid only together with the moment it was communicated. In the coming hours the count of people to be located will move, and it is not certain that it will move in only one direction: those recovered by passing boats may appear in the records with hours of delay, and vessel manifests do not always match who actually boarded.

The rescue operation

The Coast Guard deployed 2 vessels of 44 meters and 3 smaller boats, also indicating 1 military aircraft on standby. The main obstacle, according to the same source, was not the sea but the ship itself: smoke, heat and risk of explosions prevented rescuers from boarding. This means that operations focused on recovery in the water and around the hull, not on access to the interiors: this is the circumstance that explains why, many hours after the fire, the largest part of the count remains open.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. We have no elements on the origin of the blaze, and we do not speculate on it: the material available records only that investigations are ongoing.

What we do not know

We do not know the precise time the fire started, the exact position of the vessel at the moment the alarm was raised, the sea and weather conditions, nor the current state of the hull — whether it has been secured, towed or abandoned. We have no statements from the authorities on the possible presence on board of people not registered on the manifest, a circumstance that is not documented here.

What is documented are the figures released by the Coast Guard: 134 people on the manifest, 43 survivors and 5 dead in the latest reported update, 87 people still to be located. The next figures will come from the same Coast Guard, which has so far updated the toll throughout the morning.