Survivors of the ferry save by coast guard.
Outdated photo of the ferry.
A ferry carrying nearly 1,000 passengers sank in the southern Philippines early Sunday, leaving at least five dead and more than 60 missing.
At least five people have been killed and dozens have gone missing after a Philippine ferry sank with more than 960 people onboard.
Coastguards said 900 passengers and crewmembers were rescued from the Superferry 9, which sank off the southern Zamboanga peninsula on Sunday, while more than 60 others are still unaccounted for.
The passenger ferry on its journey from General Santos to Ilioilo encountered trouble before dawn and issued a distress signal around 4:00 am (2000 GMT Saturday) which promoted the coastguard, navy, air force and private boats to rush to its aid. The boat sank several hours after rescue operations began.
The sinking of Superferry 9 vessel in waters off the southern Philippines on Sunday was just the latest in a series of deadly accidents across this nation.
Ferries, whether steel-hulled versions like Superferry 9 or wooden dugouts with outriggers, are the backbone of maritime travel in this Southeast Asian nation, especially for the poor who cannot afford air tickets.
The ferry was carrying 200,000 litres of industrial fuel oil, 80,000 litres of automotive diesel oil, and 10,000 litres of lube oil when it departed Manila for Iloilo and General Santos City.It was on its return voyage from General Santos to Iloilo and Manila when it encountered problems, the coastguard report said.
"No dangerous or hazardous cargo was declared to be onboard MV SuperFerry 9," it said.
Navy ships were deployed and three military aircraft scoured the seas, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. American troops providing counterterrorism training to Philippine soldiers in the region deployed a civilian helicopter and five boats, some carrying paramedics, to help, U.S. Col. William Coultrup said.
Teodoro said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship. The bodies of two other passengers were later plucked from the sea by fishermen, the coast guard said, adding that three passengers were injured.
The cause of the listing was not clear. The ferry skipper initially ordered everyone on board to abandon the ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry.
There were reports that the ferry listed to the right due to a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. As the 7,268-ton ferry tilted, some passengers may have panicked and jumped into the water, the coast guard said.
Passenger Roger Cinciron told DZMM radio by cell phone that he felt the ferry was tilting around midnight but he was assured by a crewman that everything was well. About two hours later, he was roused from sleep by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he said.
"People began to panic because the ship was really tilting," he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.
The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city in the central Philippines later Sunday but ran into problems midway, Tamayo said.
There were no signs of possible terrorism, he said.
Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another Superferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist attack.
The weather was generally fair in the Zamboanga peninsula region, about 530 miles south of Manila, although a tropical storm was battering the country's mountainous north, the coast guard said.
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