"The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo is closely monitoring the situation in coordination with Japanese and US authorities after a US Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan", Abella told government-run dzRB radio.
The 7th fleet said the collision was with a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal.
Seven crew members are unaccounted for after the US destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged merchant ship early Saturday morning.
Five Japanese Maritime Self Defense force ships were leading the search for the missing U.S. sailors at the site of the collision, joined by another USA warship, the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey, the 7th Fleet said.
At least three other Navy sailors were injured in the crash.
Family members are frantically seeking news, appealing via social media for sailors aboard the ship to get in touch.
Two more sailors have also been taken by helicopter to hospital for what the USA 7th Fleet said were "lacerations and bruises".
Marine traffic records show that the ACX Crystal was traveling between the Japanese cities of Nagoya and Tokyo when it made a sudden U-turn about 25 minutes before the collision and was traveling at 14.6 knots (15.8 mph) at the time, BBC reported.
The navy said that the collision occurred 56 nautical miles south-west of Yokosuka, home to the 7th Fleet. "All of our thoughts and prayers are with the Fitzgerald crew and their families". "Now that the ship is in Yokosuka, I ask that you help the families by maintaining their privacy as we continue the search for our shipmates".
The USS Fitzgerald's captain, Commander Bryce Benson, was airlifted to the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka after the collision and is in stable condition with a head injury, the Navy said. Two other crew members suffered cuts and bruises and were evacuated.
Bryce Benson, was evacuated by a Japanese naval helicopter while United States military copters evacuated two injured USA sailors.
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Japan's coastguard is co-ordinating the search with U.S. teams for the seven missing crew members.
The last known fatal incident there was in September 2015, when a South Korean vessel and a Japanese container ship collided, Japan's coast guard reported.
The Philippine ship is 29,060 tons and is 222.6 meters (730 feet) long, the coast guard said. The container ship's left bow was dented and scraped, but it did not appear to have sustained any major structural damage.
The names of the missing sailors were being withheld pending notification of their families.
It was unclear how the collision happened.
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None of the 20 crew members aboard the container ship, all Filipino, were injured, and the ship was not leaking oil, Nippon Yusen said.
In such a busy shipping lane, the ships may have been in a "restricted navigation" situation, meaning they would have had o observe strict rules for movement and positioning in relation to other vessels in their vicinity, said Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center and a Hawaii Pacific University professor.
The Pacific Fleet said the extent of injuries and damage to the Fitzgerald are being determined, and the incident is under investigation.
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