The airstrike, carried out with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles fired by Russian strategic bombers based in the Arctic Circle, was the fourth large-scale aerial assault targeting the power syst ...
It was not immediately clear whether the survivors were rescued or managed to swim ashore.
Police said there were 173 passengers and 16 crew on board.
Huge waves battered the MBCA Kim-Nirvana, bound for Camotes island in central Cebu province from the port of Ormoc, the coast guard said.
Scores, sometimes hundreds, of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands with a notoriously poor record for maritime safety. Overcrowding is common, and many of the vessels are in bad condition.