Corner The Market, Kill Anybody

Written on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 7:28 pm | by Nick

This is all I’m hearing these days, that the reason we can’t stop Sulpicio Lines, is that it could be disastrous to our economy. Well, trust me, there are other worries that could be disastrous to our economy. Terrorists. Corruption. High Oil Prices. High Food Prices. President Arroyo. Fertilizer Scams. Fraudulent Elections. The list goes on.

The reason, that no one wants to take on this damn company and the owners that hide behind their lawyers is that apparently, no one wants anything bad to happen to this family, especially an all heavenly Bishop that cares more for his rich donors than the 800+ victims who mostly perished in the Sulpicio Lines Tragedy. “Kawawa naman” ang Go Family, says the Bishop.

Who the hell is giving sympathy to the families of the victims? Surely it isn’t Sulpicio Lines, who are only willing to give a maximum dole out of P200,000, which if you didn’t know, will come from their insurance company, not Sulpicio Lines itself. And if you didn’t know, comes with the added stipulation that the family cannot sue in the future. Clearly we now know, how caring Sulpicio Lines has been all along. Caring for the bottom line that is.

So, after all is said and done, Sulpicio Lines, won’t even have to shell out any damn money for the deaths of hundreds, and if we include the previous other tragedies, thousands of lives. They won’t shell out a single dime, except of course, for their tremendously talented lawyers who, mind you, have given the grief stricken families of the victims, just a little more grief.

I guess, at the end of the day, if someone has 40 percent of the market in the shipping industry, they’re allowed a few hundred or so number of souls. After all, no one wants a catastrophic disaster in our markets right?

I mean, we wouldn’t want a third of our population in poverty, or maybe have families worrying about the price of rice, and the ever increasing pressure of not finding adequate jobs so that we are forced to send the brightest overseas… Oh wait, that’s already happening.

So, what the hell are we afraid of, that’s just it, I really don’t know what we’re afraid of.

I myself, am afraid that if Sulpicio Lines is allowed to set sail once again, that yet another tragedy is just waiting to happen. We said it wouldn’t happen after Doña Pas, and well, you guessed it.

I want to make myself clear, that the indecency, the selfishness, the insincerity, and the criminality of Sulpicio Lines is almost too much to bear, if it wasn’t for the thought of my still missing cousin, still somewhere in those waters off Sibuyan Island, I would have just written this thing off, as yet another reason why our country just plain sucks sometimes. To let this kind of thing happen, and all the government officials can do is act as if they can do nothing, is a mockery of what we put them in there for. To make tough decisions, and to make the decisions we want made, not the decision they think is politically safe.

My God, what the hell will it take to make everyone realize, that no one is above the law, no one is above negligence, and that a human life does not cost P200,000.

To let Sulpicio Lines go away from this tragedy as if it never happened, and continue its greedy ass forward, is a slap on the face to the victims and to their families.

After all is said and done, if Sulpicio Lines is still in business, we have one clear reason, why a poor Filipino can get life imprisonment for murder, and why The Rich not only get richer, they can also get away with most anything — maybe even murder.

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About The Author: Nick is a passionate Filipino, and a political junkie. His personal blog is at Tingog - The Voice of The Filipino. He is the founder and Editor not Chief of FilipinoVoices.com. He has been blogging since 2006.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Corner The Market, Kill Anybody”

  1. [splice] on July 6th, 2008 11:39 pm

    “Stop Go.” That should truly be the call of the day, or the week, months or years, or until we put a stop Sulpicio Lines. The case of the Princess of the Stars is a case of negligence first and last, not the least from a legal standpoint. Stop the negligence by stopping the negligent.

  2. cvj on July 7th, 2008 12:29 am

    As i mentioned over at Manolo’s, since the government needs funds, taking over Sulpicio so that its earnings from operations can fund the improvement of the shipping industry, instead of further enriching the Go Family, should be looked into. Perhaps it can temporarily be attached to the Philippine navy. The last thing we should do is to let ourselves be hostage to these Oligarchs. Kaya namimihasa.

  3. PSI on July 7th, 2008 1:42 am

    Commented this earlier over at Angela’s:

    The late New York heiress Leona Helmsley once said “Only little people pay taxes.” A real Queen of Mean.

    Sadly in the Philippines, only the little people get punished.

    I don’t know what to say.

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