INVESTIGATION has begun slowly on the sinking of the MV Catalyn D that caught fire June 10 off Mindoro, killing five and seriously injuring 20 others.

The tragedy does not match the scale of earlier accidents, but a single death or a single mishap on the sea is a cause for concern. Also, there has been a long history of terrors on Philippine waters and it seems we have not learned our lessons.

In 1987, the MV Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker, Vector, between the islands of Mindoro and Tablas, killing more than 4,000 people. Only 25 survived the tragedy. The overloaded MV Princess of the Orient sailed into a typhoon in September 1998. Seventy people died and 80 were missing. The MV Maria Carmella caught fire in April 2002 between Masbate and Lucena, killing 23 people. Missing were 27 persons. There had been other accidents since.

The Coast Guard’s initial findings said the fire started in a cargo hold of MV Catalyn D. More than 20 crew and passengers were not on the ship’s manifest, a clear case of overloading.

Age, overloading, poor maintenance, lack of safety equipment, poorly trained crew, negligence and misjudgment have sunk many of the ill-fated ships.

Poor weather is another factor.

Last year, Rep. Francis Escudero blamed poor maritime administration for the accidents. He said that the maritime supervision of the government was thinly spread among 14 bureaus and agencies in seven Cabinet departments.

The absence of admiralty courts, obsolescent laws, overlapping of functions, the dearth of search and rescue vessels and low public awareness of maritime safety compound the problem, he said.

For this reason, he introduced a bill to fold the functions of the splintered agencies into a single office to improve maritime administration and oversee the passenger-shipping industry.

While we wait for passage, the Coast Guard, the Maritime Industry Administration and the Department of Transportation and Communication should worker together to improve safety on the high seas.

The commercial shipping industry’s acquisition program, maintenance policy and safety rules must catch up with modern technology and world-class standards.

The maritime schools that train Filipino deck officers and seafarers for overseas vessels should have room for the education of seamen bound for domestic ships.

It is interesting that Jose Rizal, in his essay, The Philippines a Century Hence, foresaw the Philippine Islands as a nation of shipbuilders. However, we have not built enough ships for our needs and continue to rely on imported models that show, like the US-made helicopters donated to the Air Force, age and tear.

Sea voyage, despite budget airline travel, remains an exciting, educational and less expensive experience. But the way shipping lines pack their passengers and overload their hulls with cargo makes sailing inconvenient, unhealthy and risky.

Blue Moon

LOOK up the sky beginning June 30 and you’ll see the Blue Moon, the second full moon in June. The first full moon lit up the sky on June 1.

It’s a rare event, hence the phrase, “once in a blue moon.”

Pagasa (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) said: “It takes the moon about 29 days to circle the Earth once in its orbit. It is possible that two full moons can occur the same calendar month.”

The last blue moon was in August 2004 when the moon was full on the first and the 30th. The description does not necessarily pertain to the moon’s color.

The second notable astronomical event is the annual June Bootid meteor shower which is expected to peak at around 10 pm, June 27. The shower comes from the debris spewed by Comet 7P.Pons-Winnecke, which orbits the Sun once every 6.37 years.

Don’t expect much, said Pagasa, since the waxing full moon may blur observation.

There’s another problem. In Metro Manila, as in major cities in the Philippines and overseas, artificial or man-made light has made stargazing a miserable experience.

Artificial light is caused by streetlights, brightness coming from cars and other vehicles, billboards and lampposts thrown upward at night. Call it perennial moonlight.

According to a study by scientists from the University of Padua and the National Geophysical Center in Boulder, Colorado, “about one-fifth of the world population, more than two-thirds of the US population and more than one-half of the EU population have already lost naked visibility of the Milky Way.”

This is terrible, lamented a New York Times editorial, because scanning the night sky and observing the moon and stars is “an unforgettable spectacle and as much a part of the human heritage—a fundamental element in our historical consciousness of life on this planet—as the sight of the sun rising every morning.”

So, don’t expect too much when you look up for the meteor shower and the blue moon. It may or it may not be there, depending on where you live. If you miss it, hum “Blue Moon” to yourself and wish yourself luck on Dec. 31, 2009, when the rare event makes its next showing.