Manila  - A boat with more than 100 passengers capsized in the northern Philippines, killing 22 people, the coast guard said Monday.

While 46 people survived, 34 were still missing from the sinking of the MB Maejan on Sunday off Ballesteros town in the province of Cagayan, 420 kilometres north of Manila.

Elena Bautista, chief of the Maritime Industry Authority, said the boat was already near the pier when it was suddenly battered by large waves.

"It was about to dock but had to pull back because of the huge waves, and it capsized," she said. "Hopefully we can rescue all those missing."

The coast guard said the vessel left Calayan Island on Sunday morning and was supposed to dock at the nearby town of Aparri in the afternoon.

The Maejan "failed to enter the port of Aparri due to big waves and strong current until it was dragged and capsized at more or less 50 metres from the shoreline of Pallog village" in Ballesteros.

Most of the victims were residents of nearby Calayan Island, according to the island's Vice Mayor Jun De Guzman.

De Guzman said some survivors were rescued by local fishermen from the waters, while others were able to swim to shore.

He added that survivors complained the motorized boat was overloaded when the accident happened.

"Because the boat was too heavy, it became unstable and this caused it to sink when battered by the waves," he said.

De Guzman said local rescue teams were helping the coast guard in search and rescue operations.

"Many are helping, even the local civilians and the police, all have been working together to rescue our residents," he said.

In June, a passenger ferry carrying more than 800 people sank in storm-whipped seas off the nearby island of Romblon. Only 56 people survived in one of the worst maritime accidents in the Philippines.

Sea travel is a major mode of transportation in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.

The country was the site of the world's worst peacetime shipping disaster in 1987, when more than 4,000 people perished in a collision between a ferry and an oil tanker just before Christmas. (dpa)