Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Sulpicio faces 6th suit in Cebu over tragedy
ANOTHER civil suit for money claims was filed against Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI), the firm’s sixth suit in Cebu and its 19th nationwide relative to the mv Princess of the Stars sinking.
Spouses Andres and Emelita Anit, parents of the late Dennis Anit, filed the latest complaint that impleaded SLI, its corporate officers, and Florencio Marimon, skipper of the ill-fated vessel.
Like the other complainants, they want the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to award them P50.8 million in actual damages, P800,000 in moral and exemplary damages, and 20 percent in attorneys’ fees that will be paid to the government.
They cited the shipping company’s “absence or lack of care and foresight” as having caused the ship to sink off Romblon, adding that it left port last June 21, with passengers and cargo that included the toxic chemical endosulfan, despite knowledge that storm warning signal number 3 had been hoisted because of typhoon Frank.
More charges
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in Cebu is also poised to file yet another case today, still for a surviving member of another deceased passenger’s family.
And it is preparing seven more, this time upon the behest of the families of individual crewmembers still missing or presumed to be dead.
But SLI aims to hit back by reportedly questioning the propriety of the PAO’s act of filing the cases, calling it ambulance chasing.
However, PAO 7 Director Maria G-Ree Calinawan, in an interview yesterday, is unfazed.
“They can file whatever they want to file,” she said, stressing that her office’s act of filing the suits is in compliance with a memorandum from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Moreover, she stressed that the complainants that they’ve assisted are all “qualified for the assistance” the PAO has extended. “While they may not be indigents, those they lost because of the sinking were the income earners of their family,” she said.
The PAO usually only represents those charged with crimes but have no capacity to hire private lawyers. But, according to Calinawan, the PAO is also authorized to represent qualified beneficiaries in making money claims.
“The only restriction is corporate cases,” she explained.
‘Foreseeable’
“The rough seas encountered by the mv Princess of the Stars were reasonably foreseeable by defendants considering that defendants are duty bound to ensure the safe voyage of said vessel,” the Anit couple said in the complaint.
They narrated how they learned of the sinking only through the media and how they were frustrated when they tried to go to SLI for information on the survivors and the casualties.
They also lamented how SLI failed to launch a proper search and rescue operation, sending only instead two tugboats to the site.
They justified the money claim by indicating that their son was a seaman earning over P100,000 a month.
They admitted to having signed a release and quitclaim agreement when they were given the P200,000 insurance money that SLI was able to get from Oriental
Assurance Corporation.
No force
However, they stressed, they were not represented by their own counsel when they did so, thus “the said release and quitclaim has no force and effect of law between the parties, being contrary to the aforesaid insurance policy and (being) against morals and public policy.”
The RTC is set to raffle the case off to a judge within the week. The first five other cases already have assigned courts.
The first to file was Celerna Calayag who lost her husband to the tragedy. They lodged their suit last July 24.
Evelio and Luisa Peralta, who lost Evelio Peralta Jr.; Orlando and Anita Tigcom, parents of deceased Ophelia Tigcom; and Gloria Basnillo, wife of Glen Nomar Basnillo, followed suit last August 6.
Since then, two more cases have been filed - Sellar vs. SLI and Garcia vs. SLI. Their cases have been raffled off to Judges Estela Alma Singco, who reportedly intends to inhibit from the case having rendered an unfavorable judgment against SLI for the 1998 Princess of the Orient tragedy last May, and Ramon Daomilas. (KNR )
