Desperate search for Philippine ferry survivors

Coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo said deep sea divers on Sunday found 12 bodies inside the Catalyn B, a wooden ferry that collided with a fishing vessel and sank near Manila on Christmas Eve.

Those bodies were in addition to four passengers already confirmed dead, while 11 others were still missing.

Balilo said rescuers had not given up hope of finding some survivors.

"We cannot shift to search and retrieval (of bodies) because we are still scouring the area for survivors and hoping to find some," he said in an interview on the ABS-CBN television network.

Nevertheless, the search had entered its fourth day, meaning hopes of finding anyone else alive were fading and as many as 27 people may eventually be confirmed dead from the Catalyn B disaster.

Meanwhile, rescuers were pressing on in a separate search south of Manila where another ferry, the MV Baleno-9, went down late Saturday.

The confirmed death toll from that accident so far is six, but 23 remain missing, said Balilo.