Sulpicio Lines Will Get Away With Murder Again!

Written on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 4:41 am | by Patricio Mangubat

There are many signs that Sulpicio Lines, will again, extricate themselves from this one. I know this would dishearten some but, really, what Congressmen showed today during the hearing on the MV Princess of the Stars congressional hearing is tragedy. Yes, it’s following the script of a Greek tragedy, a comedic exercise meant to abuse rather than punish those truly responsible for this incident which killed hundreds of Filipinos. This shows you what eventually will happen to this probe–another buck passing exercise. Again, the buck will not stop at Sulpicio. No.

It will stop at Pagasa, the meteorological services of this government.

Instead of cursing Sulpicio Lines, our esteemed legislators vented their anger against Pagasa officials. What happened to billions of pesos worth of meteorological equipment they said? And why was Pagasa officials unable to inform those ships that the storm would be passing that way and not this way. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.

And what do you expect? Forty percent of the country’s passenger capacity are being serviced by Sulpicio. Government is helpless. They can’t shut down Sulpicio Lines because it’s owned by a very influential person. This early, the owner is lobbying for his life before government magistrates and higher ups. Notice how light government is treating Sulpicio Lines. And even the traditional media is being massaged. Compare the amount of stories generated before and compare them now.

Like any other injustices wrought by big men to small people, this incident will go down in the history books as just another sea tragedy where people died without getting justice. They’ll just get 200,000 pesos and that’s it.

In this society, when little men are oppressed, it hugs the headlines for just two weeks. Look at how we react on the kidnapping of four people in Basilan and compare it with how we treated Ces Drilon’s abduction. Tomorrow, the bandits will try to kill their hostages. And even government is not doing anything to help them.

Where’s Loren Legarda when you need her?

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About The Author: Patricio Mangubat is a pseudonym. It means "country fight". Yet, the one behind this name is real. He can be briefly described as a long-time activist as well as a communication strategist. He blogs at The New Philippine Revolution.

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4 Responses to “Sulpicio Lines Will Get Away With Murder Again!”

  1. DJB Rizalist on July 8th, 2008 11:51 am

    Pat,
    In another lifetime I worked as airline crash investigator for General Electric Aircraft Engines. I mention this only in order to share an important lesson I learned from years of experience in that capacity. It is this: in a major transportation tragedy like the Princess of the Stars capsizing, it is crucial to determine the true cause of the event, not only in order to fix blame and culpability, but also in order to take the appropriate steps that will actually help to prevent a future occurrence.

    Hysterical, emotional, vindictive or just plain irrelevant actions will NOT prevent a repeat in the future.

    Now, do we really know what caused the Princess of the Stars tragedy.

    I think that unless and until a full forensic accident investigation is undertaken and correctly interpreted, any thing we do, like blogswarming and blogranting is a useless waste of time.

    That is why for example, I was wishing a full participation of the United States National Transportation Safety Board people could’ve been requested and acquired. The USS Ronald Reagan could have helped in this regard. But an entirely radical political course ensued that has prevented the ships refloating or at least expert investigators from rendering some kind of authoritative judgment on exactly what happened.

    The circus now being encouraged and conducted will lead nowhere.

  2. DJB Rizalist on July 8th, 2008 12:12 pm

    Let me just emphasize that I do sympathize most woefully with the victims and their families. But it serves their interests not one bit for people to accuse anyone in particular of culpability in the tragedy when there is so blame to go around, yet no one really knows what actually happened. We are all like the proverbial chickens running around with our heads chopped off. So maybe the blogswarm needs to calm down and demand a real investigation be done by competent, unbiased experts. Otherwise we’ll be swarming again in the future, having learned nothing from this one, or the four or five other previous events.

    Regarding the endosulphan panic, I also want to castigate those people who love playing with their tongues and the word “neurotoxic” and various other sexy-sounding technical terms of an environmentalist slant. The sheer imbecility of the “precautionary principle” espoused by Greenpeace and various ideologues in the government is monumental. Even after all the evidence that there is no leak, no contamination in and around the ship, they insist on destroying the livelihoods of fisherfolk in the area and even those as far away as the Navotas Fish Market. Again, this aspect of the event should be treated dispassionately and not ideologically.

  3. The Sulpicio Lines Saga Continues | Filipino Voices on July 9th, 2008 9:55 pm

    […] Patricio, I’m not yet worried at where the Congressional Hearings on the Sulpicio Lines Tragedy is […]

  4. right on July 15th, 2008 6:25 pm

    SULPICIO LINES

    They never learned

    AND THEY WILL NEVER

    and SO

    THE ONLY SOLUTION

    is to PERSECUTE THEM!

    SHOW ALL OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS TO PUBLIC!

    IN TABLOID AND INTERNET!

    TO HUMILIATE THEM FOR ETERNITY!

    JUST LIKE WHAT THEY’ve DONE for ETERNITY for

    the LOST BODY SOULS of their VICTIMS!

    ITS NOW OR NEXT TRAGEDY AGAIN!

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