Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Three people were confirmed dead and most of the more than 900 passengers and crew aboard a ferry that sank off the southern Philippines had been rescued, while 88 were still missing, the coast guard said.

A total of 880 people, including the three fatalities, have been accounted for, the Philippine coast guard said on its Web site, while 88 others remain “unaccounted for,” it added.

The Superferry 9 sent a distress signal at about 3:30 a.m. local time that it had listed to one side in the vicinity of the Zamboanga Peninsula while bound for the central province of Iloilo from General Santos City in the south, Commander Armando Balilo, the coast guard’s public information officer, said in a phone interview. On board the vessel were 968 passengers, crews and sea marshals, he added.

“The rescue has gone off very smoothly,” Jess Supan, Aboitiz Transport System Corp. vice president for safety and security, said in a television interview. “The sea is calm and that puts us in the favor of the weather.”

Apart from the rescue vessels, helicopters have been deployed by the Philippine military to assist in the search, the ship’s owner, Aboitiz Transport, said in a statement on its Web site.

The state’s Maritime Industry Authority will issue a show- cause order to Aboitiz and require the re-inspection of all passenger vessels, its administrator Maria Elena Bautista said in mobile-phone text message sent to reporters.

To contact the reporter of this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 6, 2009 02:07 EDT