A GROUP of heirs and beneficiaries has appealed for help to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and lawmakers, saying they have yet to receive the compensation due to them following the sinking of the MV Doña Paz during a collision with the oil tanker Vector, which killed over 4,000 people 35 years ago.
"I hope our grievances will be heard, especially with President Marcos Jr., whose mother is from Tolosa, Leyte, as most of MV Doña Paz victims were Waraynon. I hope they will be given attention. Many claimants are already old people,” said Danny Clores, the president of the Doña Paz Tragedy Claimants Association Inc.
In a series of photos and documents provided to Sunstar Philippines, Clores said the association continues to meet with its officers and lawyer for their next action.
Meanwhile, Clores, who lost his father and two other family members during the incident, maintained that he had already received his claims.
According to Clores, there were beneficiaries who received their claims in Tacloban City, Catbalogan City, and Manila in 2017.
However, Clores, a native of Barugo town in Leyte, mentioned that there are still "more or less 30 percent who have yet to receive their claims" from the 3,227 on the "masterlist" he said he had obtained.
"Noong 2018, naitatag namin itong Doña Paz Tragedy Claimants Association Inc. sa kadahilanan na matulongan itong mga kababayan namin na mga claimant, na umaasa na meron pa silang makukuhang kabayaran," said Clores, who was 17 years old when the tragedy happened on December 20, 1987.
The sinking of MV Doña Paz was known as the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in world history. (SunStar Philippines)