Asia's Titanic: The passenger ship Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker in the Philippines. 4,000 passengers died in the tragedy. Just five days before Christmas in 1987, the passenger ship Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro Island in the Philippines. 4,000 passengers died in the tragedy. It was the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster. Through dramatic first hand accounts from survivors and rescuers, transcripts from the Philippine congressional inquiry into the tragedy, archival footage and photos and a re-enactment of the collision, dissect the unfolding tragedy of Doña Paz.