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The phrase “act of God” has usual reference to fortuitous events
or force majeure, an unavoidable situation brought about by natural
causes that disrupts the expected course of events.
From legal contemplation, no person shall be
responsible for a fortuitous event which could not be foreseen, or
which, though foreseen, was inevitable, so said the Philippine Civil
Code. And for a person or entity to be exempt from any obligation or
liability arising from act of God, there must be an entire exclusion
of human agency from the cause of injury or loss, so said the
Supreme Court in a long line of decided cases.
The rationale for the legal precept, as
explained by the High Court in one case, is—“when the effect is
found to be partly the result of a person’s
participation—whether by active intervention, neglect, or failure
to act—the whole occurrence is then humanized and removed from the
rules applicable to acts of God.”
The fateful sinking of MV Princess of the Stars
(allegedly Sulpicio Line’s main star among its fleet) at the
height of Typhoon Frank last June 21 caused this nation to grieve
over the tragic of several hundreds of passengers and crew, many of
whose remains would surely just be consigned beneath the surface of
the deep sea. The irony of it all is that no one would ever take
legal or even simply some moral responsibility for the tragedy.
Did anyone ever say “I am sorry” for this
unfortunate incident?
Sulpicio Line is strong in its position that it
was the result of the weather bureau’s inaccurate forecasting of
the direction of the typhoon. The weather bureau said that it was
never remiss in its duty of providing advisories and warnings every
quarter of the day while the typhoon was here. Some observers even
note that the duty of the agency is just to predict, plain and
simple, and forecasting the course of nature would never be perfect.
The coast guard said that it adherred strictly to existing policies
and regulations, particularly on the fact that sea vessels may sail
during signal no. 1 at the discretion of the ship owner.
The arguments and counter-arguments of the
stakeholders could be endless and circuitous until such time that
the event is relegated to the inside pages of news stories. At the
end of it all, the debate before the courts, the halls of Congress,
and the various government initiated investigations would boil down
to the sole issue whether the sinking was the result of God’s will
or not. Because if it is, the families of the victims should
probably claim their just compensation in heaven.
In the next few months, business, as in the
past, would just be as usual until the next sea mishap.
Why cannot government require all shipping
companies carrying passengers to procure a compulsory insurance of
say a million pesos per passenger under a no-fault arrangement? Why
cannot government allocate enough money to oversee and ensure that
maritime regulations are strictly enforced considering that the more
than 7,100 islands of the country are connected by water lanes and
suspend or cancel the franchise of violators even before an accident
struck? Surely, there are other why’s that would come to mind.
And perhaps the most reasonable explanation is
that there is God to blame, after all. Or stated differently, maybe
the government and the shipowners prefer to act like God.
In the case of the MV Princess of the Stars, the
God in heaven cannot be blamed with certainty. But the gods of this
country should be, all because there is human intervention, neglect,
and failure to act.
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