Victims’ kin refuses settlement offers from firm

THE JUDGES handling the consolidated civil cases filed here in Cebu against Sulpicio Lines, Inc. by the families of those who died when the MV Princess of the Stars sunk in 2008 has rejected a belatedly filed batch of suits, ordering their raffle instead.

This comes following the failure in the settlement negotiations over a separate batch of cases that Judge Soliver Peras, presiding over the 10th branch of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), endorsed for mediation.

According to the lawyer representing the complainants, Sulpicio Lines, which has now renamed itself the Philippine Pan Asia Shipping, “refused to make any settlement offers.”

Still, Director Maria G-Ree Calinawan of Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) 7 does not consider the development a setback in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.

Impact

What Calinawan is worried about, she admitted, is the impact Sulpicio Lines’ change of name will have on the assets the court will be asked to secure to ensure that the damages claims against the shipping firm can be paid.

“Is this just a change of name or are they becoming a whole new different corporation? They say it’s just a change of name but who knows, di ba?” she posed.

She said the PAO Central office has already raised its opposition to the change of name, which the shipping company initiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission central office last year yet.

According to Calinawan, Judge Peras move to send back 24 of the civil suits to the RTC Civil Division for raffling is only “a technicality.”

She said the RTC Civil Division did not raffle the 24 cases to begin with and, instead, automatically endorsed these to Peras after learning that he granted a motion for consolidation and took cognizance of a previously filed batch of 40 cases.

“But the motion for consolidation did not cover these 24 other cases,” she said.

She explained that following the RTC’s procedure, the cases should have been raffled.

Following that, she added, her office would then file a new omnibus motion for

consolidation that, once granted, would cause the cases to be transferred from the court they got raffled to back to Peras.

“We are confident that Judge Peras would still grant our motion for consolidation,” she said.

Load

According to Calinawan, a total of 64 civil suits were filed by PAO 7 against Sulpicio Lines for the families of those who died in the June 21, 2008 incident.

The shipping company, she said, has filed its answer on seven cases, six of which were endorsed to mediation last year.

The six cases, she said, were endorsed back to Peras recently after the parties failed to reach a settlement despite four settings.

“Sulpicio said it is not willing to pay,” she said. The damages claims being made against the firm vary from case to case. The smallest is P800,000 while the largest is P51 million.

She said the seventh case Sulpicio submitted its verified answer to will also be sent to mediation, in compliance to the Rules of Court, but refused to speculate on whether or not a settlement would be reached this time.

Calinawan said they’ve already asked Peras to conduct the pre-trial on the six returned cases, kicking off the trial proper, but added that the judge may want to wait for the seventh case to pass through mediation or for the 24 newer cases to be consolidated with the rest and sent back to him.

Sulpicio Lines, on the other hand, has a pending motion to dismiss against 57 of the 64 cases, including the 24 which has been returned to the RTC civil division for re-raffling.

The PAO, Calinawan said, has opposed each one and is regularly monitoring each case for progress.