MANILA: Four people died, 217 were rescued and 30 are missing after a passenger vessel capsized off Infanta, Quezon near Manila on Thursday, Navy Commander Commodore Adeluis Bordado told Arab News.
The MV Mercraft III reportedly left the port of Real, Quezon at around 8.30 a.m. en route to Polilio Island.
After an hour’s travel the ferry encountered large waves, and capsized near Barangay Dinahican in Infanta town at around 11.30 a.m.
The vessel has a capacity of 286 passengers. At the time of the incident, it was carrying 251 people. The coast guard and navy search-and-rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the area.
Bordado said search-and-rescue operations were called off at around 4.00 p.m. due to rough sea conditions.
In the wake of the incident, Sen. Grace Poe is urging the creation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ensure better safety standards to prevent disasters.
“The first order of the day is the immediate rescue of the passengers from the capsized ship,” she said.
“Rescue teams with adequate equipment should be deployed at once to ensure all lives are saved.” Authorities should investigate whether the cause was natural or man-made, Poe said.
4 dead, 30 missing after passenger vessel capsizes in Philippines
4 dead, 30 missing after passenger vessel capsizes in Philippines
UN peacekeepers defy South Sudan military’s order to leave opposition-held town
JUBA, South Sudan: The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said Monday that it would not comply with a government order to shut down its base in Akobo, an opposition stronghold near the Ethiopian border where tens of thousands of refugees have fled.
On Friday, the South Sudanese army ordered UN peacekeepers as well as NGOs and civilians to vacate the town ahead of a planned assault.
But the mission refused to leave and said it would provide “a protective presence for civilians” in the town, adding that the safety and security of its personnel “must be fully respected at all times.”
The UN Mission said it was engaging “intensively with national, state and local stakeholders” regarding this order. “Any military operations in and around Akobo gravely endanger the safety and security of civilians,” said mission chief Anita Kiki Gbeho.
The South Sudanese government has been fighting opposition forces since a 2018 peace deal broke down about a year ago.
A dramatic escalation took place in December 2025, when opposition forces seized several government outposts in northern Jonglei. A government counter-offensive repelled their forces a month later and displaced over 280,000 people. Tens of thousands have sought refuge in Akobo, where a small contingent of UN peacekeepers is stationed.
Fearing the looming government assault on Akobo, humanitarian workers were evacuated over the weekend, and a mass exodus of the population has also begun.
Local officials contacted by the The Associated Press said fleeing civilians faced danger and widespread shortages of essential supplies. Dual Diew, the Akobo County health director, who has fled to Ethiopia, said there were 84 wounded patients at the hospital. “We have most of them with us here now,” he said, adding that they lack medicine and basic nursing equipment.
Christophe Garnier, the leader of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan said the organization had to evacuate its staff from Akobo on Saturday and learned of the subsequent looting of its hospital and the ransacking of its office.
“People in Akobo must now either flee without protection or remain at risk of being killed, while losing access to health care and other essential services,” he said.
The three Western governments that have played a major role in the peace process — the U.S, UK, and Norway — sent a letter to President Kiir on Monday urging that the army’s evacuation order be revoked and warning of “further deaths, displacement and suffering for the South Sudanese people” if the offensive on Akobo is implemented.
