Exacerbating a tragedy

Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ill-fated vessel, was definitely not prepared to manage the situation. To begin with, there is no amount of mitigation that could possibly give a hopeful tone to the tragedy. Sulpicio Lines only made matters worse by bungling its corporate response. Its actions only worsened public anger and damaged its reputation, perhaps irreparably, through serious policy errors.

Most serious is the appearance that Sulpicio Lines promptly adopted a policy of immediately trying to minimize its liabilities even to the point that it was no longer forthcoming. It is either that or the officials of Sulpicio Lines are deluding themselves into believing that this is one problem that will go away.

This is best exemplified by the fact that Sulpicio Lines did not promptly mention that the cargo of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars included, among others, pesticides banned in a lot of countries. Mentioning that, of course, would have raised a lot of hell outright but what Sulpicio Lines has coming to it now is far worse than what it would have been with a little bit of honesty.

Sulpicio Lines cannot deny knowing that the pesticides would definitely pose a serious health risk to the rescue workers conducting the search and retrieval operations, should any of these ever leach out of their containers. In addition, any lawyer would probably advise Sulpicio Lines that should the pesticides leak out, it could be open to one very expensive and protracted legal action from the affected communities in the vicinity.

Already, we have reports that fishermen in the affected parts of Romblon are being prohibited from engaging in their livelihood at a time when they need cash the most. That is not to mention the steep plunge in market prices of fish owing to the mistaken belief that it could have been somehow affected by the MV Princess of the Stars disaster.

Thus, it chose to keep quiet about the presence of pesticides in the cargo hold notwithstanding the huge implications. And what did Sulpicio Lines do when the matter was brought to public attention? Quite simply, it added to its own problems.

Officials of Sulpicio Lines contend that there is nothing wrong with carrying pesticides and that particular cargo was covered by the appropriate permits. Of course. But what Sulpicio Lines conveniently omits to mention is that there is no permit that absolves them of any responsibility in case their ship sinks.

The permit they got was on the assumption that the ship would safely get to port and that there would be no problems in that context. Dunking the toxic cargo in seawater where it could escape and poison other people and the environment is another matter altogether.

In addition, Sulpicio Lines is also blaming the high heavens for the tragedy branding it as an act of fate with a few side jabs at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) for allegedly not warning it promptly and correctly about Typhoon "Frank." Obviously, Sulpicio Lines is trying to spread the blame around hoping its own share would be diminished. So, what is next? Maybe, they will even go for global warming and pin the blame on Al Gore for not engaging in his advocacy much earlier.

Time and time again, we have been faced with disasters, both natural and man-made. The common thread of the really worst ones has been the lack of honesty on the part of the principals of each tragedy.