Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Seares: ‘Closure’ By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
TEN bodies of victims in the June 21 sinking of mv Princess of the Stars have been identified by DNA tests.
Cadavers were released to relatives last Sunday.
It was a tiny fraction of the number of bodies collected in Cebu (312) and hundreds more trapped in the ship and may be recovered when it’s re-floated.
Yet, it’s a good start that says DNA tests are no idle exercise. Initial results offer more than hope. Something specific may come for those who have agonized whether their missing loved ones are among the nameless corpses in the morgue.
“Closure” that homilies talk about has a meaning different from what the word means in math, geology, or phonetics. Plainly, “closure” means the end, the finality.
To relatives, burying their dead is putting to rest the victim’s soul.
Just one
That kind of closure, though heart-tugging, is just one of the endings that problems highlighted by the Princess tragedy require.
There’s the uncertainty about safety in sea travel. The issue remains murky when you hear from the new Coast Guard chief for Central and Eastern Visayas, Commodore Rolando Dizon, that “we have ships that are not really seaworthy” and “if we follow international standards, not one ship can sail.”
Dizon wants to be “flexible,” that can only mean he may bend rules to keep sea transport, the cheaper way to travel, moving. Thus, the risk of another disaster of the Princess magnitude lingers.
And when will closure ever come to families that filed lawsuits the shipping firm will resist and a decrepit justice system will drag for years?
Closure is release from anger and frustration over state of things. Who can say he sees a glimmer of it now?
