Fifteen people are confirmed dead after a passenger vessel sank off Basilan province in the southern Philippines on Monday, January 26.
The 48-metre Ro-Pax ferry Trisha Kerstin 3 had earlier departed Zamboanga City and was en route to Jolo municipality in Sulu province when it suffered water ingress in the early morning (local time) of Monday. The vessel eventually sank while off Baluk-Baluk Island in Basilan’s Pilas Island municipality.
The ferry had 332 passengers and 27 crewmembers on board when the incident occurred.
Local officials said that 316 people have so far been rescued as of 08:30 on Monday. The survivors, many of whom had donned lifejackets and were found drifting in the water, have since been brought to Pilas Island for processing and medical assessments.
Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told reporters on Monday that the ferry was not overloaded since it had a maximum capacity of 350 passengers.
The coast guard, the Philippine National Police, and other partner agencies are continuing to comb the waters off Basilan for any trace of the other individuals who were on the ferry when it sank.
The sinking of Trisha Kerstin 3 is the fourth loss of a passenger vessel to occur in the southern Philippines over the last nine days following three separate incidents off the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Tawi-Tawi, and Davao Occidental.
It is also the second major passenger vessel incident to occur off Basilan following the fire that killed 33 people on the grounded Ro-Pax ferry Lady Mary Joy 3 on March 29, 2023. Both Lady Mary Joy 3 and Trisha Kerstin 3 are owned by local shipping company Aleson.
The combined death toll of the aforementioned passenger vessel incidents that occurred in the southern Philippines this month is now at 22.
