Wednesday, August 20, 2008 2 new plaints filed against Sulpicio
THE number of suits against Sulpicio Lines Inc. over deaths resulting from the sinking of the Princess of the Stars will continue to pile up, as the DNA testing on recovered cadavers continue to identify fatalities.
Two more suits were filed yesterday morning: one by a son who lost his mother and the other by a mother who lost her daughter to the June 21 sea mishap.
At least seven other cases are in the pipeline, Regional Director Maria G-Ree Calinawan has announced, this time involving people who worked as concessionaries in the ill-fated vessel.
Ritchie Bryan Furia filed the first case and faulted the shipping company for the death of his mother, Jocelyn, 47. She was in the vessel bound for Cebu where she would have transferred to another carrier bound for Butuan City, where Ritchie lives.
Damages
Ritchie wants the court to order the shipping company to pay actual damages at P1.5 million and an additional P800,000 as moral and exemplary damages.
He also asked the court to order the firm to shoulder liquidation expenses totaling 20 percent of the money claim and giving it to the Office of the Public Attorney.
Jackillyn Pogado of Polpogan, Consolacion, Cebu filed the second suit. She is the mother of Vanesa Pogado, who would have turned 15 on November.
Vanesa, who is studying in Manila, was also in the ship with three other relatives, to visit her in Cebu.
She said the last she heard of her daughter was in the evening of July 21, when Vanesa sent her a text message via mobile phone informing her that the ship would leave the port of Manila at around 8 p.m.
“(The) life of Vanesa Pogado was untimely snapped. She was only 14 years of age, in good health, with good standing in her studies and without any disability,” the complaint read.
Warning
Jackillyn wants the court to award her whatever it feels is the worth of her daughter’s death. Making Sulpicio Lines Inc. pay another P800,000 in moral and exemplary damage will serve as warning to other shipping firms.
The suits Furia and Pogado filed correspond to case number 11 and 12 for the shipping company.
Some cadavers recovered from areas near the site of the sinking have yet to be identified and each cadaver represents a potential case.
Sample
The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is testing DNA samples taken from the cadavers and matching them to a reference sample taken from people who had family members aboard the ship.
Because the authorities know that the bodies are from the vessel and since most families have come forward to have their blood samples drawn, the chances of determining the identities of the cadavers are high. (KNR)
