Five people drowned when an overloaded passenger boat capsized in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said Friday.
The wooden vessel was carrying around 50 people, along with hundreds of bags of cement and iron bars, when it left the port of Jolo on the way to the southern city of Zamboanga on Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc said.
The accident occurred between two islands off Sulu province, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, dpa reported.
Emergency workers rescued 14 people, including seven children, while five bodies were retrieved, said Cabunoc.
The Coast Guard said passing fishing boats also rescued an undetermined number of people from the capsized vessel, which was unregistered and did not pass through inspection.
"There is no way to check how many more are missing because we have no records of the total number of people on board," said Coast Guard spokesman William Arquero.