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By Angelo S. Samonte Reporter
The government is open to taking
over operations of embattled ferry operator Sulpicio Lines Inc.
Malacañang, however, on Monday
said it will not rush into it for legal questions that may arise
from the plan. It added that it was consulting the Justice
department on the matter. The department had cited a decision of the
Supreme Court that said a takeover needs congressional approval.
“I can say it [takeover] is
still an open option for the government,” Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita said. He clarified such option will depend on whether
the Board of Marine Inquiry finds Sulpicio Lines’ negligence as
possible cause of the recent sinking of one of its passenger ships,
Princess of the Stars. The board is investigating the incident.
If results of the official probe
warrant a takeover, Ermita said, the executive branch will confer
with the House of Representatives on passing a law authorizing the
takeover.
The Executive Secretary added
that Malacañang has begun informing congressional leaders on the
open option.
He admitted, though, that the
government is also wary about any takeover.
“The government could encounter
difficulty in running the shipping line, and it [also] could be
blamed if there will be another sea mishap,” Ermita said.
For now, he added, the government
will focus on removing toxic pesticides from Princess of the Stars
so that retrieval of corpses inside the ship could resume.
Ermita said the government is
also looking into avoiding a repeat of the sinking of the Sulpicio
Lines ship, which went down on June 21 off Sibuyan Island in central
Romblon province and presumably killed hundreds of passengers and
crew.
On Tuesday, the government
allowed Sulpicio Lines to operate its cargo vessels. It cited cargos
in Manila ports are already accumulating. Sulpicio handles around 40
percent of total cargo operations in the country.
“Cargo movement has a big
effect on the economy especially at this time that we have to
transport basic food commodities and rehabilitation materials for
the typhoon victims,” Ermita said, referring to those displaced by
Typhoon Frank on Panay Island also in June.
Princess of the Stars that sank
during a typhoon will be refloated, officials said also on
Wednesday, ditching a bid to use divers to retrieve hundreds of
bodies and toxic pesticides some 11 days after the disaster.
Amid anger at the slow-moving
recovery operations, the government and the ferry owner abandoned
plans to bore a hole in the 23,000-ton vessel to extricate the
corpses and the poisonous chemicals that threaten the marine
environment.
A salvage outfit hired to execute
the refloating and Filipino and US military divers have left the
site off Sibuyan Island, Transportation and Communications
Undersecretary Elena Bautista said.
“Subsea [the salvage firm] is
pulling out because we will refloat the vessel,” Bautista told
Agence France-Presse.
She said the government has
realized that cutting through the vessel’s hull and resuming
diving operations have “too many risks involved.” Bautista added
that Sulpicio Lines will start looking for salvage companies that
specialize in refloating sunken vessels.
Toxic cargo
While tests showed waters have
not been contaminated with the endosulfan cargo, there was concern
that containers could corrode, allowing the toxic pesticides to
leach and contaminate the area.
“The potential danger to marine
life is a major factor in the decision,” said a Coast Guard
biologist, who asked not to be named.
A Philippine Air Force helicopter
circled the ship, whose bow is still jutting above the water, also
on Wednesday and dropped pink, yellow and white flowers in a
ceremony to mark the end of the divers’ efforts to recover the
bodies.
Government officials were meeting
with representatives of Sulpicio Lines “on how they will go about
refloating the boat,” Bautista said, giving no timetable for the
operation.
Vice President Noli de Castro,
who has been supervising the recovery operations, has said
refloating the vessel and pulling out the corpses would take about a
month.
The ferry sailed into the eye of
Typhoon Frank on June 21, ran aground and was sunk by huge waves as
it tried to seek shelter.
Only 57 of the 862 passengers and
crew survived, making it one of the country’s worst maritime
disasters.
Foreign forensic experts are
helping their local counterparts in the national police and the
Health department to identify the remains of the victims.
--AFP and Xinhua with Maricel V. Cruz and Sammy Martin
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