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There are two indisputable facts in the Philippines:
one, the country is an archipelago where the principal means of
transporting goods and people is through the waters that connect the
islands; and two, during these months, typhoons normally visit the
country.
Every year, sea mishaps happen in
different parts of the country, involving big ships and small
motorized bancas crisscrossing our islands.
In fact, the Philippines is the
record-holder of the world’s worst peacetime sea disaster when Dońa
Paz, also owned by Sulpicio Lines, sank in December l987 off Mindoro
after it collided with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000.
This was followed by several
other disasters involving large inter-island vessels.
And now we have the June 21
sinking of the Princess of the Stars off the coast of Sibuyan Island
in Romblon as the height of Typhoon Frank.
Only 57 survivors have so far
been found and 124 bodies recovered. Most of the more than 800
passengers and crewmembers, including the captain of the ship, are
missing and could never be fully accounted for.
But despite these tragedies, our
officials have never learned how to cope with this recurring
problem.
Who’s to blame?
Aside from the Superferry 14 fire
that killed 116 in February 2004, where the terrorist Abu Sayyaf
claimed responsibility, nobody has claimed responsibility for the
other sea tragedies.
In other countries, particularly
in Japan or Korea, when there is still honor among men, the head of
an agency that is responsible for tragedies of this magnitude
usually resigns or commits hara-kiri.
The initial outburst of President
Arroyo when informed about the tragedy was to angrily confront
Philippine Coast Guard chief Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo why the
PCG allowed the vessel to sail when there was a typhoon. This is the
same overriding question that should be asked during the Board of
Marine Inquiry now investigating the tragedy.
What is funny is that the PCG is
part of the panel of investigators. It could have inhibited itself
as called for by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez because it may turn
out that the whole incident could have been avoided had the PCG not
issued the clearance for the vessel to sail.
The excuse that under present
guidelines, vessels of such tonnage as the Princess would be allowed
to sail under typhoon Signal No. 1 would not hold water since the
PCG knows that typhoon Signal No. 3 was already hoisted in the
Visayas.
The fact that Tamayo has relieved
PCG Manila Station chief, Commander Erwin Balagas, and all the
members of the PCG boarding team is already a tacit admission of the
PCG’s criminal lapses.
Humble beginnings
Now literally and figuratively in
the eye of the storm, Sulpicio Lines has vowed to fully cooperate in
the ongoing investigations. It has no choice. It has already
suffered four major sea disasters but it managed to survive.
With Cebu City as its main hub,
Sulpicio Lines was founded by Go Guioc Go, also known as Don
Sulpicio Go. Like other successful ethnic Chinese businessmen, Go
came from Amoy in what is now the Fujian province in China. Because
of the difficult life in China, Go and his siblings sailed to the
Philippines in 1919.
He started his trading business
by using a 50-ton sailboat in hopping from island to island selling
various goods. With the Confucian ethic of hard work, patience and
determination, Go became a successful trader. In l946, he joined
Carlos A. Go Thong Shipping as the firm’s general manager and
eventually managing partner.
In 1973, Go and his sons founded
the Sulpicio Lines, and nurtured it into one of the largest shipping
companies in the Philippines. To date, it has 16 passenger and cargo
vessels, 16 container vessels, 3 tugboats and 5 barges.
Finger pointing
The PCG leadership will never
admit full responsibility for the tragedy. It is now blaming the
Sulpicio Lines while the shipping company is blaming the Pagasa for
allegedly misreporting the movement of the typhoon causing the
vessel to run smack into its path.
Sulpicio’s port officer in Cebu
Nestor Ponteros told the BMI that the disaster was the result of
Pagasa’s “gross incompetence and negligence.”
There will be more finger
pointing and blame tossing when the Senate and the House of
Representatives will start their own investigations into the
incident.
Surely there will be a slew of
resolutions that will come out from these inquiries but like in the
previous probes, they would just end up in the archives.
Until another disaster happens,
and more investigation and congressional inquiries. Meanwhile
relatives of those who perished are left to grieve for their loved
ones, many of them entombed in the bosom of the sea with their
bodies never to be recovered or given a decent burial.
opinion@manilatimes.net.
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