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Nothing has been as painful to see and hear these
last few days than the lament of relatives of the passengers who
sailed for Cebu on the MV Princess of the Stars on Friday evening
from Manila. At that time Typhoon Frank was already in the
Philippine area of responsibility. Red flags should have been flying
in the minds of all concerned.
From the record and from
experience, no country or entity or modern device has yet been able
to withstand face-to-face the full force of nature when it is on the
rampage. Thus, there is no typhoon, earthquake, volcanic eruption,
lightning storm that can yet be controlled by man for his comfort
and convenience. The best one can do is protect oneself from the
rage of Mother Earth. Or, stand still or lie low in a self-defense
mode until the rage has played itself out. If a typhoon, one does
not sail, does not take to the sea, does not challenge the roiling
waves.
Typhoons have been known to veer
every which way from the plotted course that their initial
appearance indicates. They have no set pathways that can be
confidently expected. We know this from their track record and
common sense says that we take this into consideration. Cosme, the
typhoon that hit Pangasinan a few weeks ago, wrought major
destruction because it came from the West, the China Sea side, which
meant it hit the coast which is unprotected by mountain ranges
unlike the common route from the Pacific Ocean where the Sierra
Madre, the Cordilleras and the Caraballo mountains mitigate a
typhoon’s fury.
Pagasa may not have state of the
art equipment to foretell rain quantity and other finer points of
typhoon tracking but it does give out basic information which any
intelligent person can profit from. Moreover, there are Internet
sites where anyone including Sulpicio Lines personnel may see a
storm and its characteristics. Typhoon Frank, the latest typhoon
visitor, was slow-moving which means it had the time to suck in
winds and rain at leisure. It strengthened rather than weakened when
it took in this baggage. By Friday morning it could be seen on the
Internet as a large cloud over the archipelago, covering it almost
entirely except for the extreme north of Luzon. It was a huge
system. Metro Manila was already beginning to feel the effects of a
typhoon in the offing while it was still hitting Samar and parts of
Mindanao.
So, if Manila had Signal No. 1,
obviously going south was going towards danger. We are an
archipelago, narrow enough in the middle of a wide ocean. A typhoon
can cause system-wide effects because of the water surrounding us.
The Sibuyan Sea, in particular, is a large body of water over the
Philippine Fault, which means the waters in it can transform
themselves in unexpectedly dangerous ways under the influence of a
typhoon, an earthquake, or any natural catastrophe.
While the Philippine Coast Guard
claims that Signal No. 1 is not applicable to a huge ferry like the
Princess, note that where it was headed passing through the Visayas,
the signals were much higher as Mindanao in the south. Despite the
fact that the typhoon was plotted to go to the northeast, it was
still in the central Philippines which are mostly flat low-lying
islands giving it no obstacle. Common sense and responsibility
should have descended on both the Coast Guard and Sulplicio Lines to
discern some danger in sailing, to exercise prudence and
self-defense.
Why it is always a Sulpicio Line
ship that is involved in these major sea tragedies that have put us
on the map as a nation of enormous sea mishaps? There seems to be an
element of judgment missing in these occurrences. If Sulpicio Lines
claims that it always follows rules, has the best mariners, always
uses common sense, checks the Internet sites for typhoon warnings
and makes considered judgments, yet these tragedies still occur.
What are we to conclude but that maybe they are doomed to more grief
and advise them to get out of the business?
As for the Philippine Coast Guard
and Marina, the government agencies supervising sea transport, they
seem to be at sea about their rules and methods of implementation
for the shipping industry and between themselves. There was a fatal
lack of responsibility and common sense. In our typhoon-prone
environment, it is not unreasonable to judge it as criminal neglect.
They have simply and massively failed.
Meanwhile, the post-disaster
response has been nothing short of disastrous in itself. Postmortems
in the literal and figurative sense are what we are left with.
miongpin@yahoo.com
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