lose down their
shipping line. Send them to jail for criminal negligence. See to it they lose
everything they own by holding them liable for billions in civil damages. That’s
the only to make ship officers and owners learn they should not play with the
lives of their passengers.
And for good measure, Coast Guard and Marina officials should
be sacked for allowing Sulpicio Lines to field an unseaworthy vessel and
allowing the MV Princess of the Stars to leave port when a typhoon was directly
headed on its path. These officials should not be allowed to seek refuge in
standard operating procedures under which a vessel of the size of MV Princess is
allowed to sail despite the bad weather. They are responsible for safety on the
seas. They cannot fob off responsibility for the deaths of 700 people to the
vessel’s officers and crew and the owners.
Accidents do happen. But Sulpicio Lines has had more
passenger vessel sinkings than can be blamed on chance or misfortune. Either its
vessels are not fit to ply the seas or the crews it hires are incompetent.
Speaker Prospero Nograles is on the right track. The shipping
line should be stripped of its franchise. More, as we earlier said, people
should go to jail and be punished where it hurts most – the pocket book, for
those who care not a whit for the lives entrusted to their keeping as long as
the money keeps coming.
A board of marine inquiry will be constituted as a matter of
course following a sea accident. It’s time that such a board look deeper into
the causes of the accident. It should uncover negligence and pinpoint
responsibility. For too long have such boards been letting off ship officers and
owners by placing the blame on circumstances beyond human control.
Gloria Arroyo has chewed the ass of the Coast Guard commander
who had washed his hands of the accident by saying the ship’s departure was
allowed under the rules. Why not summarily fire him? Likewise the officials of
Marina who by their sins of omission have allowed the continued service of
shipping lines deploying floating coffins with unqualified complement.
We know where the faults lie. On greedy ship owners and
regulators who are in their pockets. What has Gloria done during the last seven
years to improve the shipping industry? Marina is packed with know-nothing
political appointees. The Coast Guard is starved of funds to train its men, to
install communication and monitoring systems, to buy more rescue vessels and to
put up operating bases close to major sea lanes.
Throwing tantrums will not bring back those who died in the MV Princess
tragedy. Neither would they prevent the loss of more lives in accidents to come.
Only close regulation and upgrading of the shipping industry would.
