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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
CREWMEMBERS of the ill-fated MV Princess of the
Stars allegedly failed to assist their passengers after a “prepare
to abandon ship” order was issued, a survivor testified during a
Board of Marine Inquiry hearing on Friday.
One of the survivors, Pal Philip Vasquez, said
during the hearing that no crewmembers provided assistance to
passengers who went into panic as the ill-fated ship, owned by
Sulpicio Lines, was being battered by strong waves.
“No one told us to wear life jackets. [During]
that time I was just thinking on how to survive,” Vasquez, a
seaman by profession, said.
“The wave was higher that the ship. I hang on
for 15 minutes and jumped to the waters after I saw a life raft. I
was the third person who boarded that raft,” Vasquez added.
The survivor said that between 10 a.m. and 11
a.m., he had heard an announcement saying “all crew proceed to the
master station,” which he said meant that the ship’s crew
provide assistance to its passengers.
“But there was no assistance made,” Vasquez
said.
He added that when panic ensued, he heard loud
sounds coming from the ship’s cargo bay, indicating that the
cargoes were moving.
“The ship listed at around 11:45 a.m. and then
afterwards I heard the cargoes moving,” said Vasquez who was with
the group of 30 survivors that drifted to the shores of Mulanay town
in Quezon province.
At the same hearing, Dante Macaisa, country
manager of CEBA Logistics, told the inquiry board that they
presented to Sulpicio all documents on Del Monte’s endosulfan
shipment, including the international bill of lading and the
material safety data sheet that both clearly stated that endosulfan
is toxic and a marine pollutant.
UN experts to help in recovery operations
United Nations (UN) experts are expected in the
Philippines later Friday to advise authorities on the salvage of the
Princess of the Stars.
The experts are being deployed jointly by the UN
and the European Union at the request of Philippine authorities
“to assess the situation,” according to a joint statement by the
UN Environmental Program and the Monitoring and Information Center
of the European Commission.
The ferry operator and the government abandoned
efforts earlier this month to drill a hole through the ill-fated
vessel to extract corpses and containers with endosulfan because of
the threat it posed to divers.
At the same time, Justice Secretary Raul
Gonzalez advised Sulpicio to spare themselves from deeper legal
troubles. A Manila court on Thursday junked the firm’s petition to
stop the hearings being conducted by the Board of Marine Inquiry.
Sulpicio, which now mired in a lot of legal
troubles following the sea tragedy, is considering abandoning its
ship to its insurers in an obvious attempt to escape responsibility,
particularly the collateral damage the sea disaster caused to the
environment.
Gonzalez said that selling the capsized ship to
salvage companies is the better option because the Sulpicio stands
to earn money from the transaction that they could use in
compensating victims.
“I understand a Malaysian group is
interested,” Gonzalez said.
-- With AFP and William B. Depasupil
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