Killing The Dead And Poisoning The Living: The Sulpicio Tragedy Aftermath

Written on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm | by Ding G. Gagelonia

It is Five days since MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon and Sibuyan islands.

Now we are now belatedly being told that the ’ship of death’ also has in its bowels ten metric tons of the pesticide endosulfan with the solid crystalline poison packed not in sealed airtight containers but in plastic bags, inside ordinary carton boxes stacked in a 40-foot container van.

With this startling confession by the owners of the vessel during the Marine Board of Inquiry, authorities have hurriedly suspended the efforts to retrieve the remains of the dead still trapped in the ship’s overturned hull.

All the Navy frogmen and volunteer divers have been brought back to the surface lest the endusulfan packs burst, unless they already have, and rapidly contaminate the waters.

The Department of Health and the fisheries bureau have withdrawn posthaste their earlier safety assurance about eating fish from the site of the tragedy to prevent possible poisonings.

At the marine investigation, officials are lamely narrating how confusing the situation became at the height of typhoon Fengshen.

Now there is also a revelation from the Philippine Coast Guard that several years ago a multi million peso project to install a sophisticated emergency maritime communication system complete with global positioning satellite links “became a white elephant due to project billing problems” with the supplier delivering the hardware but not the software to run the gadgetry!

These developments bear the signature of a corrupted system pockmarked by chronic neglect and utter disregard for the public welfare.

This truly compounds the public uproar and magnifies the apparent criminal negligence of Sulpicio Lines plus the massive regulatory incompetence of government.

Those already dead ‘are being killed’ yet again while the living are seemingly lying prostrate at the mercy of the powers that be!

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About The Author: Ding G. Gagelonia is a journalist of some 30 years, having worked in both radio and TV news and public affairs since his teens. Ding Gagelonia now writes independently and does corporate communications consulting. He has two kids, Felice and Luis. His journalist blog is at midfield.wordpress.com

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One Response to “Killing The Dead And Poisoning The Living: The Sulpicio Tragedy Aftermath”

  1. cvj on June 27th, 2008 12:54 pm

    The failed Global Positioning System implementation is another example of what Jun Lozada referred to as the government’s dysfunctional procurement system. However, with the advent of mobile phones with 3G and GPS capability, this lack of technology does not serve as an excuse. Even the passengers were able to call and text up to the last moment so the Captain would have had alternative ways to get the relevant information he needed.

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