President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who left for the United States over the weekend, ordered an all-out effort to rescue the victims, especially those on the capsized ferry.

She blamed the coast guard officials for allowing the ferry to leave Manila late Friday despite foreseeable unfavorable weather.

Ferries are the common form of transportation in the Philippines with stretching 7,000 islands. The archipelago is also the site of the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster when ferry MV Dona Paz hit an oil tanker and sank, killing more than 4,000 people in December 1987.

A relative of a ferry passenger cries as she awaits the latest news inside the office of Sulpicio Lines in the port area of Cebu city, central Philippines June 22, 2008. [Photo: Xinhua/Reuters]