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THE Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) on Tuesday virtually
cleared the captain of the M/V Princess of the Stars of any
liability for the capsizing of his vessel during a heavy storm late
last month.
Instead, the maritime authority blamed the
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration for the latter’s inadequate weather bulletin when
Typhoon Frank battered the country and caused the capsizing of the
ill-fated vessel, which is owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc.
The shipping already filed a P4.5 million damage
suit against officials of the weather bureau on grounds the
latter’s allegedly wrong weather forecast caused the sea tragedy.
Based on the authority’s findings, Florencio
Marimon, the captain of the ill-fated ship, fulfilled his obligation
to prevent his vessel from capsizing.
“He [Marimon] did all he could to save the
ship,” the authority said during Monday’s hearing regarding the
petition to cancel the shipping franchise of Sulpicio.
Marina declared Marimon should not be held
accountable for the capsizing of Princess of the Stars as he had not
been remiss in his mandated duties as captain of the ship, which was
then in distress.
The exoneration of Marimon from any culpability
was based on images taken by satellite, which showed the ship
captain took all the precautionary measures to prevent the disaster
from happening.
Sad to say, Marimon is among the 700 passengers
and crewmembers of the ill-fated vessel who remain missing.
The Princess of the Stars remains capsized and
its refloating will cost around $7.5 million, Philippine Coast Guard
Commandant Vice-Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said.
He added the refloating could take at least two
months and can be shouldered by Sulpicio.
Sulpicio already tapped the services of the
Titan Salavage to retrieve the ship’s cargo of deadly hydrocarbons
and toxic chemicals.
-- Anthony Vargas
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