At least five people have died after the ferry M/V June Aster caught fire off the coast of Coron in the western Philippines on Wednesday night.
A total of 134 people were on board the vessel when the disaster occurred, including 117 passengers and 17 crew members. Video footage released by maritime authorities showed the ship engulfed in flames as it burned completely in open waters near Palawan province.
The Philippine Coast Guard announced that rescue units intervened immediately following the outbreak of the fire. The operation took place approximately 1.2 nautical miles northeast of Barangay Marcilla, a coastal area in the municipality of Coron.
In an updated statement released two hours later, coastguard officials confirmed that five bodies had been recovered and brought to land, while 42 people were successfully rescued from the water. However, the announcement did not specify the status or location of the remaining passengers and crew members.
Vessel route and maritime context
Tracking records from MarineTraffic indicated that the M/V June Aster had set sail from Manila, the capital and primary port city of the Philippines, prior to the incident off Palawan.
Palawan is an archipelagic province in the western Philippines, stretching between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. Its northern municipality of Coron is a popular tourist destination renowned for clear lagoons, coral reefs, and island diving spots. Because the Philippines comprises thousands of islands, inter-island ferries serve as essential transit links for residents and tourists travelling between Luzon and regional island provinces.
The Philippine Coast Guard oversees maritime search and rescue operations throughout national waters, while MarineTraffic monitors commercial vessel movements globally using satellite and terrestrial tracking systems.
Coastguard officials gave no indication of what caused the fire in their initial public statements, and the cause of the blaze remains unexplained.
