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Sulpicio Lines is rich enough to pay the families of those aboard
its ferry, the MV Princess of the Stars that sank in central
Philippines last month, a lawmaker said Sunday.
Sulpicio Lines ranks in the Philippines’ top
200 corporations and earns more than P5 billion in annual revenues,
Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, vice chairman of the House
committee on legislative franchises, said in a press release.
The audited financial statements of the Cebu
City-based Sulpicio Lines show that its annual revenues surged by
P2.08 billion or 57 percent from just P3.66 billion in 2001 to P5.74
billion in 2007, the release added.
Sulpicio’s 2007 gross revenues of P5.74
billion went up by P520 million or 10 percent from the P5.22 billion
it generated in 2006, Mendoza added. The company also reported it
was liquid, with P467.2 million cash at hand as of the end of 2007.
With a staff of more than 2,500, Sulpicio is the
country’s second largest inter-island water passenger transport
provider in terms of gross revenues, the release said.
Sulpicio’s two biggest competitors are the
Cebu City-based Aboitiz Transport System Corp. and the Bacolod
City-based Negros Navigation Co. Inc.
Mendoza added that based on Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) records, Sulpicio reported P1.84 billion
in “vessels’ operating income” in 2007. SEC records also show
that Sulpicio generates almost three times the annual revenues of
Negros Navigation. Aboitiz earns around 50 percent more than
Sulpicio Lines.
This just shows that the operations of
Sulpicio’s fleet of 22 ocean-going passenger-cargo and container
vessels has been lucrative, contrary to the company claims that it
is struggling to cope with “other charges,” the lawmaker said.
The “other charges” referred to by Sulpicio
in its financial statements are “administrative expense, terminal
operating expense and interest expense,” all on top of
“depreciation on appraisal.” As a result, Sulpicio claims it has
not realized a net profit for several years.
And on that basis, the shipping line reported
net losses of P211.46 million in 2007. This was slightly less than
the P229.1 million in net losses the firm posted in 2006.
Mendoza said it is time to call for an extensive
House inquiry into the sinking of the Princess of the Stars.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Sen. Juan
Ponce Enrile have said Congress should consider revoking the
franchise of Sulpicio Lines, which had figured in a number of
maritime disasters, including the sinking of MV Doña Paz in 1987,
MV Princess of the Orient in 1988, and MV Doña Marilyn also in
1988.
Enrile is chairman of the Senate public services
committee, the counterpart of the House legislative franchises
panel.
Still unaccounted for
Some 804 persons are still missing and
unaccounted for two weeks after Typhoon Frank battered Luzon and the
Visayas, Philippine National Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon said
Sunday.
The Princess of the Stars sank off Sibuyan
Island in Romblon during the same typhoon.
Gordon, who visited the towns devastated by the
storm, said 312 of the list of missing are fishermen, while the
remaining are those who perished aboard the Princess of the Stars.
Gordon said the government must now give more
attention to the plight of the country’s small fishermen, as he
pushed for programs to ensure their safety and security.
He disclosed that the local Red Cross has
received donations from the US, Australia, China, France, Spain,
plus organizations like Philip Morris, Ford, the Chinese chamber of
commerce, Jaycees, and other institutions to support the food
requirements in affected municipalities.
-- Jomar Canlas and William Depasupil
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