Sinking Ships And Stolen Lives

Written on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 am | by Ding G. Gagelonia

Filipinos are waking up this morning to yet another gut-wrenching tragedy: the sinking of an inter-island ferry in the stormy seas off the marble-rich island of Romblon. The toll thus far: 700 feared dead. The culprit shipping firm is the the notorious Sulpicio Lines. Yes, this is the same company that owned the MV Dona Paz whose sinking in December 1987 is considered the world’s worst ferry disaster and the worst peace-time maritime disaster in history with the official death count at 1,565. Survivors claim the overloaded ferry carried up to 4,000. In October 24, 1988, the sinking of still another of Sulpicio Lines ferry, the MV Doña Marilyn reportedly killed over 600 people.

TV newscasts are blaring out the angry voice of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo berating the head of the coast guard for allowing the boat to leave port despite inclement weather. Mrs. Arroyo was calling from Fresno, California, the first stop of her “working” official visit to the United States. An inauspicious start for the trip. The now customary apology, incredible as it is, has come from Sulpicio Lines with the hollow promise to help the victims. No comfort. We know that to this day the damage claims of the earlier victims in the Dona Paz and MV Marilyn tragedies are locked in court. One wonders how and why a shipping company like this continues to operate given its woeful record of sinking ships, and stealng the lives of it hapless passengers. They are left only to light candles and wail. In other countries people would have long expressed outrage by putting such firms to the torch.

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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

Filed Under Business and Economy, National News, Politics, World News

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13 Responses to “Sinking Ships And Stolen Lives”

  1. PinoyPinoy on June 23rd, 2008 8:24 am

    whats the cause? inclement weather condition? overloading? who authorized the Ferry to depart inspite of the bad weather condition? Who is resposible for this? is somebody will go to jail for the neglegience that cause this tragedy? or as usual they will just pay the family for the lost of there love ones. When are we going learn!

  2. benign0 on June 23rd, 2008 10:06 am

    … and the countdown starts before this tragedy ends up in yet again on Page 4 (just like other incidents that took a back seat to politics).

    Heads will not roll in this case (as in others) because Ces Drilon was not on that ship. ;)

  3. Paul on June 23rd, 2008 11:02 am

    A tragedy to the affected families… Another chance that the Government can show its hypocrisy to the issue at hand!

    There are infallible truths that I will lay down first.

    - The Coast Guard gives final authorization when a ship is to set sail guided by the rules set forth by the DOTC and MARINA.

    - All ships are to be equipped with Radars and Weather equipments to monitor Sea activity.

    - All ships must report every hour by the hour to the nearest Coast Guard station in accordance with international standard.

    Now, are any of these pre-requisites observed? I doubt. A classified Super Typhoon like that is hardly missed by any radar! Honolulu and Tokyo was able to monitor it from their end why not Manila? much less Cebu(the proposed new capital of the Philippines as per their Governor!)

    Also, isn’t it in the past 10 years, Sulpicio Lines have incurred at least 3 shipwrecks? Why are they still in the business?

    With a death toll of more than 100, in other countries, company presidents resign. Coast Guard Commandants resign in humiliation. The DOTC secretary is reprimanded, and the MARINA board is dissolved by the President for culpability and negligence - the Shipping Company is closed down.

    Only in the Philippines…..

    My prayers go with the affected families may God’s consolation be with them in this hour. And Eternal Damnation to those people who have approved the murder of these people from the Sulpicio Lines Management to the Government agency heads that are morons in allowing this manslaughter.

  4. benign0 on June 23rd, 2008 11:47 am

    This lack of regard for mass death in Pinoy society may have something to do with:

    (1) Galloping population growth (excess supply = reduced prices)
    (2) Perverted religiousness, i.e. “death is the whole point of life”
    (3) Bahala na and pwede na yan mentality
    (4) Narrow attention spans (the next celebrity circus quickly trumps a 1000-casualty disaster).

    That’s da Pinas for you.

  5. PinoyPinoy on June 23rd, 2008 12:45 pm

    I agree with you Paul, but do we really think whoever is responsible for this will be liable? again it will just go around and around. Trust me nothing will happen. No justice will happen and no laws Will be uphold.

  6. ruth on June 23rd, 2008 8:26 pm

    Yeah ur right sulpicio is such a notorious ship. That company should have a strict check up of all their ships before they have to depart.They havent learn a lesson…

  7. Tito on June 23rd, 2008 9:50 pm

    by this time, we should learn how to avoid this kind of tragedy by not taking any vessel from sulpicio lines.

    another investigation for their sea worthiness?? to ease public outrage,they are just grounding all sulpicio vessels,but after awhile, when emotions subsided, sulpicio lines will be back in business and will have to rename their vessels to convince the public as if their vessels as ‘new’.
    its the game of their business.

  8. PSImeon on June 24th, 2008 12:34 am

    The blame game is on. Again.

    Almost everything is an accident waiting to happen in this country. Whether its from negligence, weak oversight or supervision by the regulators, corruption, attitude and discipline of the people, etc. When will we ever learn?

    To think that the Philippines is a disaster-prone country located in the Pacific ring of fire (earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) and typhoon belt (20 plus strong storms each year) you’d think that we’ve learned our lessons. Oh well.

  9. And then there was silence… | Filipino Voices on June 24th, 2008 12:56 pm

    […] the risk of flogging a dead horse, I did make the quip (maybe in bad taste) here that: “Heads will not roll in this case (as in others) because Ces Drilon was not on that […]

  10. I'm sorry Tito on June 24th, 2008 11:30 pm

    My uncle was on that damn ship. He travelled to manila only to see my Auntie who has been diagnosed with end stage of renal desease. he only wanted to see her before a worse scenario happens to her. Then this is what happened to him going back home to Cebu.Where is he now???? His last words to my Auntie in Manila was “Nita baka huli na natin tong pagkikita” little did we realise that something was going to happened to his trip back home!!!!

    Please take ownership. Don’t be a coward. Stop making excuses. This was not the first time Sulpicio Line’s vessel sank and killed so many people. How many more are they expecting to kill? We want justice and not just forgotten again!!! We want my Uncle’s BODY!!!!

  11. Ding G. Gagelonia on June 25th, 2008 6:32 am

    This strikes at the core. How indeed does Sulpicio respond to these pleas? By announcing they “will pay P200,000 for each” of the confirmed deaths! You can be sure the damn firm’s lawyers are now busy dusting off templates of quit-claim papers for the hapless victims’ families to sign. This is one time a really massive CLASS ACTION SUIT is called for.

  12. " A sad Reality " on June 27th, 2008 3:24 pm

    By this time. . Sulpicio Lines must be careful enough because it is not just there first time. . but maybe a second. . a third or a fourth time already. they must not just think about money. . money. . but also the safety of their passenger..

    i dont really know what is the real cause of this tragedy but in passed tragedy, its happening because of overloads . . . etc. etc. etc.!!

  13. jary on July 10th, 2008 11:57 am

    blaming anybody will not do something about wat had happened to the sanking of M/V Pricess of the stars though its very hard to accept for those relatives of the victims. Since it happened already, all they have to do is to pray for the souls…………….

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