Continuing search operations in the waters off Basilan province in the southern Philippines have led to the recovery of the bodies of 11 more people who perished after a passenger vessel sank here earlier this week.
The 11 deceased victims were found by local residents who had volunteered to assist the Philippine Coast Guard in the search and rescue/recovery (SAR) operation following the sinking of the Ro-Pax ferry Trisha Kestin 3 off Basilan’s Hadji Muhtamad municipality on Monday, January 26.
The latest recoveries have now raised the incident’s confirmed death toll to 29. Officials meanwhile reported that 316 passengers and crew have been rescued.
Fifteen people were initially found dead during the first few hours of the ongoing SAR operation. Another three bodies were recovered as the SAR effort entered its second day on Tuesday, January 27.
Trisha Kerstin 3 had earlier departed Zamboanga City and was en route to Jolo municipality in Sulu province when it suffered water ingress shortly after 00:00 local time on Monday.
The vessel sank a little over an hour later while approximately 2.75 nautical miles off Baluk-Baluk Island in Hadji Muhtamad.
The sinking of Trisha Kerstin 3 is the fourth loss of a passenger vessel to occur in the southern Philippines over a period of nine days following three separate incidents off the provinces of Surigao del Norte (one dead), Tawi-Tawi, and Davao Occidental (six dead, eight still missing). The combined death toll of these four incidents is now 36.
The sinking is also the second major passenger vessel incident to occur off Basilan following the fire that killed 33 people on the grounded ferry Lady Mary Joy 3 on March 29, 2023.
Aleson Shipping Lines, the owner of Trisha Kerstin 3, has been ordered by the Philippine Department of Transportation to temporarily suspend its passenger vessel operations while the investigation into the tragedy is ongoing.