|
THE Board of Marine Inquiry hearings on the MV Princess of the Stars
disaster are not over but some obvious conclusions may now be made.
The latest news at press time is that hearings
may be held in Cebu so more survivors can be interviewed.
Meanwhile some “facts” are known:
—The Sulpicio Lines ship’s captain, who is
most likely among those who have died, decided to sail despite the
Sulpicio Port captain’s warning that Pagasa had issued a
strong-storm warning.
—The MV Princess of the Stars is a passenger
ferry, not a cargo ship.
—But the ship was carrying toxic cargo.
—The ship’s ballast tanks were not filled to
capacity, precisely to accommodate the cargo. Ballasts are necessary
to stabilize ships in strong-wind and big-wave situations.
—Sulpicio Lines is the owner of ships that got
involved in other disasters and tragedies. One of them happened in
1987, on December 20, when more than 4,300 people died as a result
of the collision of Sulpicio’s MV Doña Paz with Vector, a tanker.
This, up to now, is the world’s greatest non-wartime sea disaster.
Once more, because of this latest disaster that
has killed almost 800 passengers of MV Princess of the Stars,
lawmakers and government officials are addressing safety issues of
our domestic inter-island shipping transport system.
In the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel is calling
for a review of the Maritime Industry Authority’s policy of
granting permits to ancient vessels to continue operating as
passenger ships.
The Marina is the government’s highest
policy-making and inspecting body on maritime safety and transport.
It is under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
Why, we must join Senator Pimentel in asking, do Marina and the DOTC
grant certificates of seaworthiness to these floating coffins?
Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, irked
by Sulpicio Lines’ ability to go unpunished all these years
despite the tragedies its ships have been involved in, wants special
courts created to hear maritime cases.
He calls the Philippine record of maritime
disasters “deplorable.” He calls the shipping companies
“unscrupulous” and deplores their ability to escape their
liabilities.
The horrible frequency of maritime disasters in
our country, where the ferry system is the major means of
transportation between our 7,100 islands, is an indictment of our
entire maritime industry and the government regulators and
lawmakers, said Sen. Rodolfo Biazon. He blames his own branch of
government for having failed all these decades to pass strict laws
to reform the maritime industry.
New laws should be passed to hold shipping
companies and ship operators liable for sea disasters. The
Philippine Coast Guard should be given more equipment and manpower.
But these laws are unacted upon. (See “Why are
bills to reform the maritime industry not being attended to?”) The
reason: There are powerful congressmen who are owners of shipping
companies.
Seaworthiness certificates
Marina only inspects ships once a year to
determine their seaworthiness. Experts on safety say these
inspections are cursory and once a year is not enough.
But is this another case of regulatory capture
by vested interests? Is the Marina under the thumb of the shipping
companies?
Why are there so many shipping disasters?
The simplest answer is that we have bad laws
regulating the maritime industry. These laws are being badly
enforced by possibly compromised government agencies. Most of the
shipping companies are badly managed. And there are some, like
Sulpicio, that are not faithful to their passengers.
|
