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Saturday, June 30, 2007
Vessel drifts at sea for 10 hours after leaving Oro
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Yet another vessel of Sulpicio Lines, Inc. met engine problems while traveling from Cagayan de Oro City to Cebu City on Friday, stranding passengers for over 10 hours off Siquijor.
M/V Princess of the Ocean, carrying around 416 passengers, was dead on the waters when it reached the sea off the island of Siquijor. All three of its power generators failed around 2 a.m.
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The ship captain said the vessel drifted towards the Dumaguete area and it was there that Sulpicio's tugboat Zalcon Express caught up with it at 1:30 p.m. and tugged it towards Cebu.
Sulpicio officials insisted there was no human error involved, just "mechanical error."
Passengers said they noticed that something was wrong with the ship's power supply even before they left the Macabalan Pier in Cagayan de Oro City.
Maritime Industry Authority (Marina)-Northern Mindanao Regional Director Marianito Mendoza received reports that the same vessel had suffered five to six engine problems in the past.
He vowed to write a letter to his counterpart in Marina-Cebu City, which has authority to look into the seaworthiness of m/v Princess of the Orient.
Some passengers and their relatives threatened Friday to file a damage suit against Sulpicio Lines, Inc. for the incident and for the things they went through because of the shipping firm’s alleged "gross negligence."
"There is a high degree of diligence required for a shipping company to determine seaworthiness of their vessels," said a text message from a passenger who requested anonymity.
"It is impossible for all three generators to malfunction in one trip if the shipping firm exercised the diligence that it should have had," the message added.
The ship captain said they would await legal charges that passengers might file against the company. "That is their right," he said in the dialect.
There were no reports of any serious injury but a passenger allegedly suffered from heat stroke.
Also, passengers complained of hunger and thirst, lack of power supply, and that they could no longer contact their friends, relatives, and business associates.
At around 3:15 a.m., Regional Association of Government Communicators (Ragcom) Northern Mindanao officer Teng Sazon said the ship was approximated to be stranded near Bohol with all its engines dead.
“Please inform coastguard naa (there is a) ship karon patay makina dapit (with engines not running near) Bohol. Captain won't communicate with passengers. Ship bound for Cebu from CDO. Passengers are panicking na! SOS-help!" reads her text message to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
She said her two friends, Susan Abrina and Cristin Tenchavez, were also passengers of the same distressed vessel.
In an interview over radio station dxIF, the ship captain said there were 461 passengers on board the ship.
He explained that all three generators of the ship failed -the first generator overheated, the spare parts of the second generator broke down because of "wear and tear", and the third generator's bearing didn't function.
"Na-timing lang gyud ang tulo gyud ka generator mao wala ka-andar ang makina (It just happened that all three generators went down and that was why the ship's engine didn't have any power)," he said.
He said they did everything they could to make sure the passengers won’t suffer further inconvenience. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (June 30, 2007 issue)
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