THE suspension of the operation of Aboitiz Transport System (ATS) for more than a week after SuperFerry 9 sank on Sept. 6 off the coast of Zamboanga killing nine passengers is perhaps the shortest in the country’s history of maritime accidents.

Marina Administrator Maria Elena Bautista cannot avoid being accused of bias after she caused the lifting of the suspension order on ATS operations. Endika Aboitiz sits in the Marina board.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Other players in the shipping industry suspect that Marina would not have ordered the suspension of the operations of the ATS vessels had other shipping companies not pushed for it.

The length of the suspension of ATS operation is a source of envy of the other shipping operators. The operation of Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) has been suspended for more than a year already but Marina has refused to lift it despite appeals from the business sector.

Bautista claimed during a radio interview by Bobby Nalzaro that SLI failed to comply with the requirements of Marina to insure the vessel’s passengers and to hire a ship management company.

A source, who asked not to be named, refuted Bautista. He said there is no requirement under the law or in Marina regulations regarding insurance for the ship’s passengers and the hiring of a ship management company.

My source, who is knowledgeable of maritime laws and the shipping industry, could not believe Bautista would make such an unacceptable excuse when she knows there are no such requirements under the law.

Was Bautista making her own excuses outside of what the law provides just to keep SLI’s operation at bay and at the same please Endika Aboitiz, who many believe is an influential member of the Marina Board?

With due respect to Aboitiz, his appointment in the Marina board is clear conflict of interest as defined by our anti-graft laws because his family operates ATS.

***

I said this before and I will say it again: elections are like miracles. They bring benefits, albeit temporary, to the community.

Senior citizens and indigents of Cebu City’s south district are enjoying, this early, the benefits of the coming 2010 polls.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña, before he left for the United States, announced that he will give P2.5 million each to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the Cebu City Medical Center as medical aid.

Osmeña will run for congressman against businessman Atan Guardo in Cebu City’s south district. Although the mayor has yet to file his certificate of candidacy, this “ploy” violates election laws.

Be that as it may, Mayor Osmeña’s financial aid for the indigents and senior citizens of the city’s south district can’t match the “Blue Card” that Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Neri Lim has been giving to the city’s senior citizens and indigents.

Mayor Lim’s “Blue Card” entitles the bearer free hospitalization and medicines in the city’s accredited hospital. Dr. Ben Galea, medical director of one of the hospitals in Tagbilaran, said the mayor’s blue card program is a success story.

Unlike Mayor Tomas, who just thought of the medical aid because he wants to frustrate Guardo’s ambition to be the next congressman of the south district replacing Rep. Tony Cuenco, Mayor Lim started his health program a year after his first term in office.