Authorities in Basilan province in the southern Philippines have reported the recent recovery of the bodies of 11 victims of a passenger vessel incident that occurred here early last week.
The additional remains, confirmed to be those of victims of the sinking of the Ro-Pax ferry Trisha Kerstin 3, were recovered in the waters off Basilan's Hadji Muhtamad municipality between Friday, January 30, and Sunday, February 1, during retrieval operations carried out by the Philippine Coast Guard and local civilian volunteers.
This raises the incident's confirmed death toll to 40, though officials expect the total will rise as search and retrieval operations are still ongoing.
The death toll has exceeded that of the March 29, 2023 fire incident on the ferry Lady Mary Joy 3, which also occurred off Hadji Muhtamad. Thirty-three people were killed In that earlier incident.
Both Trisha Kerstin 3 and Lady Mary Joy 3 are owned by local company Aleson Shipping Lines. The latter's passenger vessel operations since been temporarily suspended by the Philippine Department of Transportation as part of an ongoing investigation.
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, January 26. 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 (all passengers and crew rescued, and Davao Occidental (six dead and eight still missing).
The combined death toll of these four incidents is now 47.
The Trisha Kerstin 3 tragedy is the deadliest maritime incident to occur in Philippine waters since the August 16, 2013 sinking of the ferry St. Thomas Aquinas following a collision with another vessel off Cebu province. The latter incident resulted in 108 confirmed fatalities and 29 people still unaccounted for among the ferry's 870 passenger and crew.
