4 more listed passengers did not board MV June Aster

Puerto Princesa City — Four more individuals listed in the passenger manifest of the ill-fated MV June Aster have been confirmed to have not boarded the vessel when it left Baseco Port in Manila on Sept. 8, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said Wednesday night.

PCG spokesperson Commodore Noemi Cayabyab said the Emergency Operation Center in Coron discovered on Sept. 15 that the four listed passengers were not aboard the ship when it caught fire at sea on Sept. 9 while en route to Coron, Palawan.

“Based on (Coast Guard) verification, three of the four individuals said they had intended to book tickets from Coron to Manila but mistakenly booked the opposite route, from Manila to Coron,” Cayabyab said.

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“The fourth passenger had booked another ticket and had already traveled to Coron via another passenger vessel on September 5, 2026,” she added.

With the latest development, the PCG said the number of people actually aboard the June Aster when it left Manila was reduced to 128 passengers and 17 crew members.

The updated accounting also brought the number of officially missing people to eight. The death toll remained at 77, while 43 survivors have been accounted for.

The PCG meanwhile said it continues to verify and reconcile passenger information as part of its ongoing accounting of all individuals in the ticket manifest of the vessel. /dp