Philippine:15 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province

In the Philippines, a ferry with more than 350 people on board sank in the southern Philippines in the wee hours of Monday. The Ferry  M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 was travelling from Zamboanga to Jolo Island in Sulu province with a total of 359 people on board, consisting of 332 registered passengers and 27 crew members. Rescuers from the Philippine Coast Guard, navy, and local fishing boats have saved at least 316 people and recovered 15 bodies, while more than 100 others remain missing. In its statement, the coast guard said the ferry had not been overloaded.
The archipelago nation of 116 million has a long history of disasters involving the inter-island ferries that ply its seas. Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained vessels, overcrowding and spotty enforcement of safety regulations, especially in remote provinces. Many rely on cheap and poorly regulated boats and ships for transport between the country's more than 7,000 islands, despite regular accidents.
In 2023, more than 30 people were killed when a fire ripped through a ferry in the southern Philippines, while a 2015 capsizing off the western coast of Leyte Island resulted in more than 60 deaths.In December 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 worst peacetime maritime disaster.