Rescuers from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) are searching for eight missing crew members of a fishing vessel that sank off Palawan province after colliding with a cargo vessel on Saturday afternoon, a PCG spokesperson said on Sunday.
Commodore Armand Balilo said the collision occurred before 6:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, 26 km northeast of Maracanao Island, and 13 out of the 21 crew had been rescued.
The search and rescue operations were continuing, Balilo said, and the cargo vessel MV Happy Hiro, on its way to the central Philippines, was not damaged and had helped transport the rescued fishers safely.
The maritime accident happened less than a week after a ferry carrying over 130 passengers and crew caught fire on May 23 while travelling to a town in Quezon province on the main Luzon island, leaving at least seven dead.
Ferry accidents are not rare in the Philippines, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.
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