The Philippine navy said today there appeared to be no signs of life in a passenger ferry sunk in the centre of the archipelago during a typhoon.
A spokesman for the navy said a team approached the ship yesterday afternoon to check for possible survivors.
"We just approached the hull of the ship, we got near and then banged, knocked in order for us to give a sign if ever there are still people inside," Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo said.
Part of the bottom of the sunken MV Princess of the Stars is seen off Sibuyan island, central Philippines
"Unfortunately there was no response."
Navy divers were expected to drill into the side of the vessel later today in case survivors might be alive in air pockets.
Typhoon Fengshen, with maximum gusts of 120 mph, has killed at least 159 people in central and southern Philippines, with the western Visayas region, famed for its sandy beaches and sugar plantations, the worst affected.
It pounded the archipelago, damaging thousands of houses, rice stores and displacing tens of thousands of people.
The typhoon is currently over the South China Sea and is expected to move northwards towards Taiwan in the next few days.
Twenty-eight passengers and crew were the most recently found survivors of the ferry disaster, having landed at a small coastal village after drifting for more than 24 hours in a rubber boat, local radio reported.
Two others originally on the life raft drowned in large swells.
We are checking whether there were people trapped inside the ferry," Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the head of coast guard, said. "We might have to drill holes so our divers can access it."
Philippine transport authorities said today they had grounded the vessels of ferry company Sulpicio Lines for inspection. The company's ships have been involved in three other major disasters over the past 21 years.
Today's 28 survivors brings the total number to 32. Four people were confirmed dead yesterday. Sulpicio Lines revised the number of people on the MV Princessof Stars to 845 from an initial estimate of more than 740.
Fearing the worst, some relatives of the 845 people on board raged at officials while waiting for news in the central city of Cebu, where the Princess of Stars was meant to dock.
In 1987, the Sulpicio-owned Dona Pazferry collided with an oil tanker killing more than 4,000 people in the world's worst peacetime sea tragedy.
The death toll from the Princess of Starsmay be higher as relatives waiting in Cebu gave the names of 11 people suspected of being on the ship but not listed on its passenger manifest.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in the United States for a state visit, held a video conference with disaster officials early today and said coast guard protocols should be reviewed to prevent another vessel sailing into a typhoon's path.
In Iloilo province, 101 people were reported dead after flood waters over two meters high engulfed communities, forcing tens of thousands to scramble onto the roofs of their homes.
More than 30,000 people were being housed in evacuation centers in the centre and south of the archipelago.
Reuters