List of maritime disasters in the Philippines

Below is a list of the most notable deadliest maritime incidents or tragedies in the Philippines.

List of maritime incidents

Maritime Vessel	Shipping line	Incident		Deaths	Missing	Survivors	Remarks
		Date	Fate
MV Don Juan	Negros Navigation	April 22, 1980	Sank after collision with a small oil tanker, MT Tacloban City	176	Unknown	888	MV Don Juan was a luxury liner that is bound to Bacolod City. At the 10:30 p.m. (PST) on April 22, 1980, it collided with an oil tanker, MT Tacloban, off Tablas Strait in Mindoro. 15 minutes later, the vessel sank at a depth of 1,800 feet. The vessel was carrying 1,004 passengers, but it was only cleared to carry 864 persons – including its crew.
MV Doña Paz	Sulpicio Lines	December 20, 1987	Caught fire and sank after a collision with an oil tanker, MT Vector	4,341	Unknown	24	On December 20, 1987, at 6:30 a.m. (PST), MV Doña Paz left from Tacloban City, Leyte, for the City of Manila, with a stopover at Catbalogan City, Samar. On December 20, 1987, at 10:30 p.m. (PST), the passenger vessel collided with a motor tanker, MT Vector, near Dumali Point between the provinces of Marinduque and Oriental Mindoro. The vessel's manifest only listed 1,493 passengers and a 53-member crew, but survivor accounts that the vessel was carrying more than 4,000 passengers. The incident was the worst peacetime disaster and the worst in the 20th century, and the vessel was even named the Asia's Titanic.
MT Vector	Vector Shipping		Caught fire and sank after a collision with an passenger vessel, MV Doña Paz	11	0	2
MV Doña Marilyn	Sulpicio Lines	October 24, 1988	Sank after caught by Typhoon Unsang	389	2	300	In the afternoon of October 24, 1988, while sailing from Manila to Tacloban City, the vessel was caught up in Typhoon Unsang and sank. It was the sister ship of MV Doña Paz.
MV Cebu City	William Shipping Company	December 2, 1994	Sank after collision with an oil tanker, MV Kota Suria	73	41	525	Collided with Singaporean oil tanker, MV Kota Suria, off Manila Bay. The oil tanker only had a dent in its bow.
MV Kota Suria	Pacific Int’l Line Ltd.		Did not sink	0	0	Unknown
MV Viva Antipolo VII	Viva Shipping Inc.	May 16, 1995	Sank after the vessel caught fire	62	10	142	Caught fire within the vicinity of Dalahican Fish Port, Lucena.
MV Kimelody Cristy	Moreta Shipping Lines	December 13, 1995	Sank after the vessel caught fire	24	13	100	At 2:00 a.m. (PST) on December 13, 1995, caught fire and sank off Fortune Island, Nasugbu, Batangas.
ML Gretchen I	Noe and Clarita Quiamco	February 18, 1996	Sank	51	Unknown	145	Sank after being battered by strong winds and sank near Cadiz City. The old wooden ferry, according to the investigation, was not seaworthy and was carrying more than its allowed capacity. It was also eight hours late to dock in the Port of Cadiz. The Philippine Coast Guard had failed to respond to the incident since the ferry has no radio on board.
200px MV Princess of the Orient	Sulpicio Lines	September 18, 1998	Sank	70	80	355	On September 18, 1998, the 13,935-ton, 915-metre (3,002 ft) long MV Princess of the Orient, sailed from Manila to Cebu during a typhoon. The ship capsized at 12:55 p.m. (PST) near Fortune Island in Batangas.
MV Asia South Korea	Trans-Asia Shipping Lines	December 23, 1999	Sank after collision with a rock	58	0	699	The vessel en route to Iloilo City from Cebu City when it rock formations off Bantayan Island. The collision created a hole in its hull causing its sinking.
MV Maria Carmela	Montenegro Shipping Lines	April 11, 2002	Sank after the vessel caught fire	39	6	371	Fire broke out in the cargo hold of the vessel around 7:30 a.m. (PST). The vessel was burning for three days until it sank in Pagbilao Island, near Quezon.
MV San Nicolas	San Nicholas Shipping Line	May 25, 2003	Sank after collision with SuperFerry 12	43	21	182	The collision happened at 11:45 a.m. (PST) near Limobones Point, Corregidor. MV San Nicholas was heading for Manila, while Superferry 12 was sailing for Cebu.
SuperFerry 12	Aboitiz		Did not sink	0	0	1,700	The ferry was not heavily damaged and was still in service until the ferry caught fire at Cebu in March 2006.
SuperFerry 14	Aboitiz	February 27, 2004	Sank after bombed by Abu Sayyaf terrorists	94	24	781	On the night of the 27th of February, the ferry sailed out of Manila for Cagayan de Oro City via Bacolod City and Iloilo City with 899 recorded passengers and crew aboard. An hour after its 11 p.m. sailing, just off either El Fraile or Corregidor Island an explosion tore through the vessel, starting a fire that engulfed the ship which caused the deaths of some of the passengers. A television set containing a 3.6-kilogram (8-pound) TNT bomb had been placed on board in the lower, more crowded decks. It was the Philippines' deadliest terrorist attack and the world's deadliest terrorist attack at sea.
MV Princess of the Stars	Sulpicio Lines	June 21, 2008	Capsized	437	605	32	MV Princess of the Stars capsized off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon at the height of Typhoon Frank. The ferry left Manila en route to Cebu City. Although Typhoon Frank, had made landfall at Samar Island earlier the same day, the Princess of the Stars was permitted to sail because the vessel was large enough to stay afloat in the typhoon's periphery. However, Frank unexpectedly changed course later that day, placing the ferry in serious danger of being overwhelmed by the storm. According to an account given by four survivors, who managed to swim to nearby Sibuyan Island, the Princess of the Stars had not malfunctioned, but ran into rough seas off the coast of Romblon.
MBca Don Dexter	Unknown	November 4, 2008	Capsized	42	10	105	Motor banca Don Dexter capsized near Macaraguit Island, Dimasalang, Masbate after its outrigger broke.
MBca Jen-Mar	Unknown	December 14, 2008	Capsized	47	30	45	Motor banca Jen-Mar capsized near the vicinity of Linao, Aparri, Cagayan after its outrigger broke. The motor banca was carrying passengers in excess of its allowed capacity, and bad weather condition which was a contributory cause of its capsizing.
MV St. Thomas Aquinas	2Go	August 16, 2013	Sank after collision with an cargo ship, MV Sulpicio Express Siete	114	23	750	On 16 August 2013, MV St. Thomas Aquinas departed from Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. At approximately 9:00 p.m. (PST), it was heading into the port at Cebu City via the Cebu Strait when it collided with MV Sulpicio Express Siete, a cargo ship owned by the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation that was leaving port, approximately 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from Talisay, Cebu. The vessel immediately began to take on water, prompting the captain to order the ship abandoned. The crew hurriedly handed out life jackets as hundreds of passengers jumped overboard. Within 30 minutes, the ship had sunk. At the time of the collision, St. Thomas Aquinas was carrying 715 passengers (58 were infants) and 116 crew members. Many passengers were asleep at the time or otherwise had trouble finding their way to the deck in the dark.
MV Sulpicio Express Siete	Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation		Damaged; did not sink	0	0	36	The Sulpicio Express Siete, which did not sink, has 36 crew members on board.

1. ^{a b c d} Data are based from the records of the Board of Marine Inquiry of the Philippine Coast Guard, unless taken and supported from other references.
2. ^{a b} The death toll of 4,341 was only an estimate, which also includes the missing.

See also

• List of maritime disasters

External links

• Ships of the World Article
• Guinness Records Article
• DNV Annex 1 Passenger vessel Evacuation descriptions P36
• Strings of Maritime Tragedies

• Ship Awry
• Safety in the High Seas
• Casualty Count
• Sulpicio Lines vessels in major marine mishaps