Saturday, July 05, 2008 Oledan: Mockery By Radzini Oledan
DESPITE figuring in four major maritime disasters, Sulpicio Lines continues to evade justice.
In what the International Maritime Organization considers as the biggest maritime tragedy in the world, Sulpicio Lines-owned M/V Doņa Paz collided with M/T Vector on December 20, 1987. M/T Vector was carrying Caltex petroleum products when the accident occurred.
MV Doņa Paz was overloaded, and 4,375 people lost their lives. In 1988, the Board of Marine Inquiry found M/T Vector solely at fault.
On October 24, 1988, less than a year after the Doņa Paz tragedy, huge waves brought by a storm capsized M/V Doņa Marilyn, which was sailing from Manila to Tacloban, Leyte. Seventy-seven people were killed.
In 1990, a Special Board of Marine Inquiry found that the sinking of the vessel was due to force majeure.
Almost 10 years after the M/V Doņa Marilyn mishap, on September 18, 1998, the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Orient near Fortune Island in Batangas resulted in the death of 70 people. Eighty remained missing.
On June 20, 2008, the M/V Princess of the Stars sailed the rough stormy sea from Manila on its way to Cebu City with more than 700 passengers. The rest became a collective nightmare as the ship transformed into a mass grave.
But the disaster was not an act of God.
It was not fate that dictated the M/V Princess of the Stars to sail the rough stormy sea.
It was the greed of the shipping line.
Sulpicio Lines had their way before; it is not impossible for them to have their way now.
Despite having the worst sea safety record in the country, they have continued operation for the past years.
Along with inept government maritime agency, it continues to mock the Filipino people. (Email comments to roledan@gmail.com.)
