Sunday, June 29, 2008 Disaster costs Sulpicio at least 'P10M a day'
SULPICIO Lines Inc. is losing millions of pesos every day from the suspension of its 13 passenger vessels by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
Capt. Nestor Ponteires, port captain of Sulpicio Lines, said that even if the passenger vessels do not operate, the company keeps paying the salaries and allowances of its more than 2,000 workers.
Quoting a maritime official, Agence France Press reported yesterday that the owners of the sunken ferry are unwilling to have the vessel refloated because it would not be able to claim full damages from insurers.
The senior official said the mv Princess of the Stars, which sank off Sibuyan with 850 people aboard in a typhoon a week ago, has an intact hull with air pockets that could be used to float it once more and put it right side up.
However, the official who declined to be named, said the owners and the Coast Guard “are not pursuing that tack because they are waiting apparently for the insurers to conduct their own investigation.”
“If they refloat the vessel, Sulpicio will not be able to claim damages for a total wreck,” the senior official said.
The 24,000-ton vessel now rests upside down on a reef off Sibuyan, with part of its hull jutting from the waters. Only 57 survivors have been found, and it is believed that most of the dead are trapped inside the hull.
Sulpicio Lines officials have pledged up to P200,000 in insurance compensation for every family that lost someone in the disaster.
The company has had at least three other major accidents since 1987, when its Doña Paz vessel collided with an oil tanker, killing around 4,000 people in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.
Government has suspended the company’s operations until further notice.
But amid skyrocketing fuel prices, the ships’ generators keep running even if they cannot ply their routes yet, said Ponteires.
The company is also charged usage fees by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) for vessels berthed outside Cebu, and Cebu Port Authority (CPA) for those within the Cebu ports.
For the mv Princess of the Earth, docked at Pier 5 for the past week, Sulpicio has to pay the CPA P5,373 in docking fees per day, he pointed out.
Although Ponteires said that the company might lose P10 million per day, another source who refused to be identified estimated the losses at P100 million in gross sales per day.
Ponteires’ estimate is also similar to the firm’s losses of P20 million in unrealized income during a two-day labor strike in July 2003.
Records gathered by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) during that strike revealed that each Sulpicio vessel carried at least 200 container vans of cargo per route. Its fleet travels between Cebu and Manila, Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City, Masbate, Iligan, Ormoc, Zamboanga and Ozamiz.
As the country’s largest shipping company, Sulpicio Lines carries major cargo and passenger loads.
According to Ponteires, Sulpicio Lines handles 30 percent of the sea transport services in the country. (EOB/AFP)
