Thursday, October 1, 2026
With nearly all votes counted in Bangsamoro's first parliamentary election, the Bangsamoro Federalist Party leads on 35.2 percent against 32.4 percent for the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's own party. The leader in front is the region's chief minister, himself a former MILF commander. Turnout passed 82 percent. Proclamations are delayed.
More than 2.3 million voters in the Muslim-majority Bangsamoro region of the southern Philippines were eligible on Monday to elect the region's first parliament, the step that ends the transition set up by the 2014 peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. A shooting near a polling station killed three people the day before. Results are still to come.
The Philippine Coast Guard recovered 41 more bodies from the MV June Aster on Saturday, raising the toll to 76 with 43 survivors and 13 missing. Those figures add up to 132, which is exactly the number who boarded. The ship was certified for 330. Overloading is no longer the question; the two explosions and the missing captain are.
The Philippine Coast Guard's Saturday briefing gives the same figures as Friday's: 35 dead, 43 survivors, 53 missing. Burnt remains were found in the economy accommodation. Forensic teams are working under temporary tents at the port in Coron. The count now moves at the speed of identification rather than search.
The MV June Aster was four nautical miles from Coron when survivors say an explosion came from the cargo hold. Thirty-five are confirmed dead, 43 survived and 53 are missing. That is 131 people against a manifest of 134, and in Philippine ferry disasters the manifest has not always been the number aboard.
A diplomatic gift arrives in an afternoon and needs no mechanism. Undoing one requires a procedure, an owner and somebody accountable for the decision, and the Manila Zoo had none of the three.