Charred bodies from Philippine ferry fire arrive at Coron port as search continues

Thirty charred bodies recovered from a burned passenger ferry reached a port in the western Philippines on Saturday for identification, after a fire aboard the MV June Aster killed at least 35 people and left more than 50 others missing.

Coast guard officials said retrieval operations would continue, noting that more bodies remain inside the vessel, though they did not give a count. Of the 132 people on board, 43 survived.

The ferry had sailed from Manila and was about 39 kilometres from its destination, the Port of Coron, near the village of Turda, when the fire broke out on Wednesday evening.

Tents were set up at the Port of Borac in Coron, Palawan province, where body bags were brought ashore from a ship that had transported them from the burned ferry. The coast guard said the remains would be handed over to the local government, with police assisting in identification.

Commodore Noemie Cayabyab, a coast guard spokesperson, said authorities are searching for the ship's captain, who reportedly survived but is not listed among the survivors. She said a multiagency maritime safety and criminal investigation would examine all angles, including the possible liability of the captain and crew.

The cause of the blaze has not been determined. A survivor said it may have started in the cargo hold, recounting a blast before smoke and fire spread rapidly, fanned by winds. Cayabyab said survivors described the incident unfolding so quickly that there was no time to get life jackets. A tarpaulin covering the ship's open areas could have been a contributing factor, she added, though it was too early to say whether passengers were trapped.

Investigators will also check whether fire emergency procedures were followed, including whether the captain sounded an alarm or issued instructions, and whether crew members assisted passengers.

Images released earlier by the coast guard showed the ship's charred interior, with ashes, burnt metal and what appeared to be human remains, including a car.

Survivor Arnulfo Nokki Villanueva told a local news outlet that he could not reach a life jacket as panicked passengers stepped on him. Lira Daco, whose 20-year-old daughter is missing, said she was pained by the thought that her daughter may have burned alive and by the difficulty of identifying her among the charred remains.

According to the manifest, 134 people were on board — 117 passengers and 17 crew — but the coast guard said two passengers listed later reported they had not boarded. The 53-metre vessel had a capacity of 306 passengers and 27 crew. Two survivors were tourists from Chile, according to a staffer of the ship's owner, Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc.; the coast guard said the foreigners had left Coron and authorities had coordinated with their embassy.

The shipping company said in a statement that it was assisting those on board and their families while working with the coast guard and maritime officials to locate the missing and determine the cause of the fire.

Coron is a popular tourist destination known for its clear waters, limestone cliffs and rock formations. Ferries are a common mode of transport across the Philippine archipelago, and sea accidents are not uncommon because of storms, poorly maintained vessels, overcrowding and uneven enforcement of safety rules, particularly in remote provinces. In 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.