18 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province in southern Philippines

At least 18 bodies were recovered, and 24 people remained missing after an inter-island ferry sank early Monday morning in waters off Basilan province in the southern Philippines, authorities said.

There were 332 passengers and 27 crew members onboard when the accident happened, according to the Chief Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

"The search and rescue operation is ongoing, but what I can say is that the ship is not overloaded. It has a maximum passenger capacity of 350, and the actual passengers on board, as declared by the master, are 332. The Coast Guard has immediately acted on it as soon as it received, or we've received, the distress call from the Sea Marshal on board. It has two Coast Guard personnel on board acting as Sea Marshals," Gavan told reporters in Manila.

"There are initial reports, but the details are not yet final," he said.

Gavan said the cause of the sinking was still under investigation.

The PCG Commander Romel Dua of the Southern Mindanao District told reporters that 317 people were rescued.

The PCG said the M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 was en route to Jolo Island in Sulu province from Zamboanga City when it sank before 2:00 local time on Monday off the Balukbaluk Island in Hadji Muhtamad, a municipality in the Sulu Sea.

18 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province in southern Philippines

18 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province in southern Philippines

18 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province in southern Philippines

18 dead after ferry sinks off Basilan province in southern Philippines

A super El Nino event officially formed in September 2026, monitoring data from China's National Climate Center showed on Friday.

Zhao Junhu, chief forecaster at the center, said that the equatorial central and eastern Pacific entered an El Nino state in May this year, with sea surface temperatures in the key monitoring region rising rapidly and continuously from May to September.

The three-month running mean of the sea surface temperature (SST) index in the monitoring region has remained above 0.5 degrees Celsius for five consecutive months. The index exceeded 2.5 degrees Celsius for the July-September period, meeting the threshold for a super El Nino event.

The event is classified as an eastern Pacific-type El Nino, in which the warmest sea surface temperatures are concentrated in the equatorial eastern Pacific.

Monitoring data showed that sea surface temperatures across most of the equatorial Pacific in September were above average of the same period, with temperatures in the warm pool of the eastern Pacific exceeding the climatological average by more than 3 degrees Celsius.

The SST index for the monitoring region reached 2.94 degrees Celsius in September, up 0.35 degrees Celsius from August. The average index for the July-September period stood at 2.54 degrees Celsius.

Based on a combination of domestic and international dynamical climate models and statistical forecasting methods, the center expects sea surface temperatures in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific to continue rising over the next three months, peaking in late autumn or early winter, Zhao said.

The event is expected to become the strongest El Nino on record since systematic monitoring began, he added.

Super El Nino event formed in September: China's National Climate Center