A wooden ferry carrying about 100 passengers has sunk in the Philippines, with at least 22 people drowned and about another 30 missing.
The ferry Maejan was approaching Aparri in Cagayan province in the north of the country when its bamboo outrigger broke in heavy seas off Ballesteros.
Passengers panicked and some leapt into the sea, creating instability on the vessel, which then capsized.
Police said many survivors swam ashore and were found shivering on land.
"They panicked and grabbed anything like water container that will keep them afloat then jumped off the boat," Senior Inspector Alex de los Santos told the Associated Press news agency.
Among the bodies recovered late on Sunday was that of an unidentified one-year-old boy.
"There were no relatives. Most probably his parents perished with him," said Mr de los Santos.
Maritime accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago due to tropical weather, badly maintained passenger boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
Hundreds of people were killed in June, when a 23,000-tonne ferry - Princess of the Stars - capsized during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan.
Only 57 passengers and crew of the 850 people aboard survived the accident, making it the worst maritime disaster in the Philippines for 20 years.
Philippine maritime disaster.
At least 28 people drowned and were confirmed dead, 46 were rescued, while 34 others remain missing on Sunday, after an overcrowded passenger  capsized off waters in , a town of 17,000 people, the  police reported. 

'M/B Mae Jan', a wooden-hulled , was carrying 102 passengers, after an eight-hour voyage from  in the  for  when it capsized less than 300 meters (984 feet) from its destination, at 8:30 p.m. Its   broke due to strong waves, as it reached the mouth of the  ('Bannag' Rio Grande de Cagayan, 'Ilog ng Kagayan'), along  Linao, about 50 meters from the shoreline of Pallog village.

Divers from the combined teams of the  and  helped in the rescue operations. 11 of the fatalities, including the vessel owner, Arellano, and her daughter were identified. The police said  "there was a possibility that the boat was overloaded," saying that "there was also livestock on board."  Due to "trauma," the ferry's captain refused to talk to police.

The Pinacanauan River, seen just below the , is one of the major tributaries of the Cagayan River.
Meanwhile, the  (PCG) formed a Special Board of Marine Inquiry (SBMI) to investigate the sea tragedy. It ordered the "immediate dispatch of SAR-003 and MCS-3005 vessels and the PCG Islander for aerial surveillance." PCG noted the  possible overloading of the vessel since the boat's franchise authorized it to carry only 40 passengers and 10 crew members.

In November, a  sank in rough seas north of Cagayan, and passing vessels rescued 16 of 20 passengers. Weeks earlier, separate storms sank two passenger vessels in the central Philippines, drowning more than 50 people.

Prior to the ferry sinking, the  had issued  to , of approaching tropical storm "Ulysses" (international codename: Dolphin) from the Pacific with winds of up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour, centered off southeastern , eastern Philippines.