At least 31 people are confirmed dead after a ferry sunk in the Philippines. (AAP)
Authorities in the Philippines are trying to find 85 people missing after the St Thomas Aquinas ferry sank as leaking oil begins to spread.
Philippine authorities say they are unable to stop fuel leaking from a sunken ferry, as oil spread to coastal villages, fishing grounds and mangroves more than five kilometres away.
The St Thomas Aquinas ferry sank on Friday night after colliding with a cargo ship just outside the port in Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city, leaving at least 34 people dead.
Authorities were focused on Sunday on trying to find 85 people missing and believed inside the ferry, about 30 metres under water, but the leaking oil added a new front to the disaster response.
"You can see it coming out of the sunken vessel. It is bunker fuel and it is black," Cebu coastguard commander Weniel Azcuna said.
"It has affected a lot of shorelines here in Cebu and (the neighbouring island of) Mactan."
He said there was about 120,000 litres of bunker fuel, and divers had been unable to reach the source of the leak.
Among the areas affected were Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town in Mactan island, and Talisay city in Cebu, which all host popular beach resorts.
Cordova also has protected mangrove areas while Talisay has a thriving fishing industry.
At Cordova, more than five kilometres from where the ferry sank, roots of mangroves were coated in black oil at low tide.
Herons and egrets waded amid shallow water that had a rainbow sheen of oil.
Azcuna said that because the hole could not be plugged, the coastguard and a company contracted by the ferry operator were spraying a chemical dispersant to try and break it up.
He could not say how much of the fuel had leaked out already.
An official with the ferry operator told ABS-CBN television the company intended to bring in foreign experts who could safely pump out the remaining fuel.
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