The Voyage of the Dead

Written on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 6:45 am | by Ding G. Gagelonia

It is a full two weeks since the ill-star MV Princess of the Stars fell on its side and ended bottom up some 100 meters from the shoreline of San Fernando, Romblon after being allowed to mistakenly sail into the eye of Typhoon Frank.

The vessel was csarrying more than 850 souls en route to Cebu and while it nearly did reach port, its final stopover has become the unintended tomb of the Princess’spassengers and crew.

But in a somewhat macabre show, we are witnessing officials now quibbling over just how much it would cost either the government, Sulpicio Lines, or the boat’s insurers to refloat or tow the ‘Princess before anything is done to extract the highly toxic pesticide, all 10 metric tons of it, from the ship’s bowels plus the vessel’s 250,000 liters of bunker diesel fuel.

Extra care must be taken, we are told, to prevent any further loss of life.

But this writer cannot but ask, how about the dead? Just when and how do we take care of the now heavily decomposing remains of the once vibrantly alive passengers and crew?

Don’t they themselves deserve to be attended to with dispatch so they can be given proper, respectful burials?

How much longer do their mortal remains have to suffer the indignity of being entombed in a ghost ship?

When will the voyage of the dead end?

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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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8 Responses to “The Voyage of the Dead”

  1. DJB Rizalist on July 9th, 2008 7:03 am

    Well, first there was all that hysterical panic mongering over the endosulphan, “all ten metric tons of it”, mostly insoluble in water, over which a nationwide fish ban was placed, despite negative findings in and around the ship. Ahh but fish have to be tested in case sedimentary endosulphan “might” have drifted into their skin. “Neurotoxin” is such a sexy word, but the precautionary principle is seen in action as a brain killer in and of itself. Ten metric tons is about 10,000 liters of water (a small swimming pool). Has anyone done the calculation for concentration based on the known solubility of endosulphan at 20K liters, 200K, etc. in the ocean? How much crap flows into Manila Bay everyday?

    Then there was that Constitutional Myanmarism over the USS Ronnie Reagan by heartless intellectuals not so much concerned about “nuclear weapons” but the indispensable grievances of anti-colonialism, much in evidence even when the USS Mercy, a hospital ship comes into RP waters which activists have even questioned in case they have “nuclear medicine” on board. Suddenly every placard carrying zombie is a Constitutionalist manifesto-maker. Never mind the tens of thousands that could’ve been helped. Let the imperialist stay in Hong Kong.

    I hear there’s even a blogswarm to go after Sulpicio Lines, when truly, NO ONE to this day actually knows what caused the sinking of the ship. Maybe it was just an act of God, maybe it was mechanical failure of the ship’s engines from a local storm surge, maybe it was lack of a weather report, maybe the typhoon changed course, who knows? Maybe the endosulphan got in the propellers. Maybe it was negligence on the part of the Coast Guard. But no, we must place blame now, even before a proper forensic accident investigation has brought the true and real facts in. Everyone has to be a grandstander in Congress of course, which is the worst possible place to be doing such an investigation.

  2. Ding G. Gagelonia on July 9th, 2008 7:11 am

    DJB,

    I share your exasperation. Sadly, after all the huffing and puffing, and when the head line of this story ends, all those grandstanding officials will likely just try to reckon how many ‘pogi’ points they earned and the needed reforms will be put in the legislative and executive back-burners.

  3. DJB Rizalist on July 9th, 2008 7:21 am

    Soup to nuts, the sensationist Mass Media, the hare-brained enviro psychos, the industrious antik-imperialist ideologues and a government bureaucracy that has learned to play all the old and new games have chosen to tar and feather one of the country’s biggest mover of passengers and cargo. Yet none have either the facts or competence to take them out or take them over.

    For lack of the hard, verifiable facts, inutile grievance is our cold repast.

  4. Ding G. Gagelonia on July 9th, 2008 7:49 am

    What must in fact be more strongly looked out now is the criminal negligence of the government agencies with tangent duties in this case. They too share in the blame.

    Are we not made to pay taxes on eveythingwe buy so that government can work to keep us safe from crime and ‘force majeure’?

    While Sulpicio does need to take responsibility here, how about government?

  5. DJB Rizalist on July 9th, 2008 9:52 am

    The first thing that must be done is to find out what really happened to the Princess of the Stars. That can’t be done with the scoop hungry media and Manila Pen style journalists poking microphones and cameras at people who naturally will play to their music and never get anything done. Televising the BMI and congress hearings was just like what they tried to do with Trillanes’ lil caper. It’s Press Freedom to sell sensational panic-mongering getting in the way of a proper investigation. Sorry, but I blame the swarming media and their insane “right to know” tabloidism when there isn’t anything yet to know, so you get nothing but a silly song and dance to the usual tunes of the blame game.

  6. Arbet on July 9th, 2008 10:13 am

    DJB, looks like you are also playing the blame game, eh?

    Why do I get the feeling that Sulpicio is hoping that this, too, shall pass?

  7. alan on July 9th, 2008 10:50 am

    i am quite amazed that when Ces Drillion was released that a ransom of 20 million(?) pesos was paid,and a senator to be on the spot supposedly negotiating,what was so special about her? When the surviving families of the boat tragedy get only 200,000 pesos. Wow makes one think of just how little the common Filipino is regarded…

  8. Nick on July 9th, 2008 9:31 pm

    @DJB,

    I agree on some points, but to say that we should wait, when we know already that Sulpicio could have decided not to sail..

    This action alone, compounded by previous violations, and tragedies, should be enough to cease them from operations.

    I just don’t think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

    I am not targeting Sulipicio LInes only, but all who had a hand in this.

    And yes, that blogswarm , that was my idea. It’s ok to refer to me, I won’t be offended, we just differ in our view in this one.

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