Quest for the True North

Speaking up on the MV Princess of the Stars disaster

Filed under current events

I rarely watch news on TV. The few times that I do, I am reminded that the Philippines is hopeless.

I’ve been following the news on the disaster that struck MV Princess of the Stars, but it was my first time to watch it on TV last night. It’s different reading about the news from actually seeing the contorted faces of those who are in pain for the loss of their loved ones. The meaning is taken to a different level.

I live just a block away from the center they put up to accommodate the relatives of the sunken ship. My housemate says it’s terrible there. I’ve been thinking of checking it out, but I doubt I’d want to be there. Most of the passengers on that ship were Cebuanos, and quite a few people I know know someone on that ship. I cannot imagine being in their position.

I also cannot imagine how scary it must have been for the passengers to be slapped with waves as big as a mountain. What were the last few minutes of their lives like, especially for the elderly and the children?

I travel a lot by sea, too. I even get scared when a ship sways and rocks when it’s raining at sea. What more if the ship is in the eye of a strong storm? I’d probably just wish that I’d die in a car crash.

Contrary to what is often said, Sulpicio Lines doesn’t have a record of three sunken ships, but five. Or at least that was what the documentaries said last night.

When the news first broke last weekend, I got mad that Sulpicio wasn’t straightforward about it. It wasn’t clear if the ship had sunk or had simply taken refuge elsewhere.

And then early morning last Monday, I heard the wails of the relatives on the local radio, saying that the personnel in the Sulpicio office in Cebu didn’t want to face them, for lack of backbone maybe. The guards faced them instead.

Sometime this week I read that the company president said in a press conference that they were sad too because the ship was expensive, as if the most expensive ship in the world could pay for the life of even the most lowly human being.

They blamed the coast guard for allowing the ship to sail, until they were told that there was a new rule. Apparently the shipping line had been operating on a 1998 rule even when a 2007 rule was already in place. Goes to show how incompetent they are.

And then it was discovered last Friday that the ship was carrying toxic chemicals as cargo when it sank, and the shipping line refused to reveal it, despite being urged by Del Monte Philippines, the owner of the cargo. There are stories of how the chemicals were not packed properly, of how the chemicals weren’t supposed to be on a passenger ship, of how the toxic cargo were not separated from the cargoes of food and everything else.

Quoting from Inquirer.net,

When asked why the shipping company did not inform the PCG of the cargo it loaded on the MV Princess of the Stars, Florido said that they were “not asked about it.” “We would have informed them if they asked,” she added.

Excellent work ethics. Do you have to be asked?

But Balilo said it was not the responsibility of the Coast Guard to inspect every cargo carried by a ship unless they were informed and that Sulpicio should have taken the initiative to inform the PCG of the MV Princess of the Stars’ cargo even before the ship left Manila last Friday.

Do you have to wait to be informed? Do you not inspect? If, for example, the cargo had been illegal drugs and the ship was paid well by drug lords, would you expect the ship to declare the illegal drugs?

And it’s not their responsibility to inspect? Who should inspect cargoes then? None? It sounds twisted to me.

Now the ship is blaming the weather bureau. From what I got here, Signal No. 2 was hoisted over Romblon three hours after the ship left Manila, while the ship was still in Corregidor. So, they really cannot not say that they were caught off-guard by the storm. Couldn’t the ship have taken refuge elsewhere like what the other passenger ships did?

I don’t want to spend more time following the finger-pointing and deciding who is right and who is incompetent, but there’s one thing I can smell from the shipping line and the agencies involved: slacking at work.

It’s a normal human reaction to cover up one’s ass when in trouble. The only difference is that, this time, the slacking resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, in the pain of thousands of family and friends who loved those who perished, and in the possible contamination of the sea around Romblon.

When your business involves life, there is no time to slack.

I hope you all die of guilt.