From the News! – Your Daily News

Sammy Martin
Manila Times

IN the beginning of this, the 14th Congress, congressmen filed several bills to upgrade the ancient Maritime Code of the Philippines. Sadly, after they were filed and referred to the corresponding committee, hearings have not been held.

So the New Maritime Code that would reform and streamline the industry and the government’s role in it have remained a dream.

These bills, whose becoming law might be the key to the end of sea disasters like those that have befallen Sulpicio Lines ships and stop the loss of sea travelers’ lives, are immobile in the Committee on Transportation as if they were the drowned victims in MV Princess of the Stars and the other ill-fated Sulpicio ships that have sunk: the MV Doña Paz, MV Doña Marilyn and MV Princess of the Orient.

House Bill 76, authored by Rep. Rozzano Rufino Biazon of Muntinlupa City was filed July 2, 2007, was read and referred to the transportation committee on July 24, 2007, a day after the 14th Congress opened. This committee has not called a single hearing.

Biazon’s reason for filing the bills is to reform the rotten laws dealing with registration of ships, maritime liens and ship mortgages, maritime fraud, accidents at sea and ship owners’ liability.

His bill contains a separate common carrier provision to apply specifically to vessels transporting passengers and goods. It likewise updates the marine insurance provisions found in the Insurance Code of 1978 and creates alternative methods of dispute settlement in the form of arbitration.

Biazon writes in his explanatory note that “Maritime Law in other countries has become one of the most dynamic, complex and rapidly changing areas of law as both the courts and the legislature have sought to fashion new laws to meet social, economic and human needs resulting from the ever expanding maritime industry.”

But in our country, Biazon points out, the development and growth of admiralty and maritime law are almost static if not eroded so that the industry’s future at this moment is difficult to predict.

He said, “There is a need for all stakeholders, particularly admiralty lawyers, ship owners and those who are involved in the shipping industry to help reform and update the country’s shipping laws.”

The measure, Biazon continues, positions the Philippine maritime industry to benefit from the advances in the means of communication and transportation, the greater interaction among people, especially in business, where there are now complex domestic and international transactions.

There are two identical bills, both aiming to create the Department of Maritime Affairs which is tasked to formulate and implement the government’s policies, plans and programs for the promotion of maritime safety and the development of ports, shipping, shipbuilding, seafaring and other activities in the maritime industry. These were filed by Representatives Roque Ablan Jr. of Ilocos Norte and Jose Solis of Sorsogon.

House Bill 841 of Ablan was filed on July 9, 2007, was read on the floor on July 31, 2007 and was referred to the House Committee on Government Reorganization as lead committee, which has not set a date for any hearing on the Ablan bill.

Solis’ House Bill 979 which was filed on July 10, 2007, read on the plenary on August 1, 2007 and referred to the House Committee on Government Reorganization with secondary referral to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on Transportation, is still pending with the committees since August 22, 2007.

Thoroughly checking on the bills, the index and with the transport committee secretariat, The Manila Times found out that four more bills about the maritime industry have been filed.

They are House Bills 2612 and 2715, both titled “An Act Regulating Shipping Vessels Coasting Philippine Waters for the Protection of Shores” and House Bill 4167, “An Act Allowing Foreign Vessels to engage in Coastwise Trade in the Country” all filed by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City.

The last measure filed is a local bill, House Bill 4357—”An Act Establishing the Mati Wharf in Mati City as Shipping Hub for Davao Region”—by Rep. Thelma Almario of Davao Oriental.

House Bill 2612 was filed September 19, 2007, was read also on that date, and then referred to the House Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources. It has not had a hearing so far.

Rodriguez re-filed his bill, now under the identifier House Bill 2715, on October 3, 2007, with some small amendments. It was referred to the House Committee on Ecology the following day. The bill has been pending in the committee since April 29, 2008.

His HB 4167 was filed May 21, 2008 and referred the same day to the House Committee on Trade and Industry and the Committee on Transportation as secondary committee, as well as to the Ways and Means committee. It has been labeled as pending since May 28, 2008 in the mother committee.

The lone local bill among the seven bills on maritime industry, Rep. Thelma Almario’s HB 4357 which was filed June 11, 2008, two days before Congress adjourned sine die on June 13, is still pending for first reading.

The big question is why the bills on the maritime industry are moving at a very slow pace and are almost static.

Is it because some members of the House of Representatives are owners of shipping lines and the measure might affect their business?

This is the 64-million-dollar question that needs to be addressed soonest.

Manila Times

The Marine Board of Inquiry probing into the tragedy of the Sulpicio Lines-owned MV Princess of the Stars is not over and must still learn many things from witnesses but one fact has clearly emerged: Government inspection of vessels is lax, haphazard and done only once a year.

The government body officially tasked with making sure that Philippine ships are seaworthy, well-equipped according to its type, tonnage, age and use is the Marine Industry Authority (Marina).

Marina inspects vessels only once a year—at the time when a ship is in dry dock. When the ship passes this inspection and pronounced to be seaworthy and fully equipped with regulation facilities, it can be put to sea again.

It seems that as long as it looks good, in the eye of the surveyor and examiner, it doesn’t matter if the ship is too old.

Coast Guard may inspect

The Philippine Coast Guard, in its own description of its functions, states that it has the work of doing MARSAF or Maritime Safety Administration. In its MARSAF task, the “function of the PCG is to ensure the seaworthiness of the vessels plying the waters through the conduct of Port State Control inspection of foreign vessel, among others.” Of course, “among others” include Philippine flag-bearing ships.

The PCG further states that under the MARSAF duty, “It also enforces the vessel safety regulatory standards on domestic vessels through the conduct of Flag State control inspections, Emergency Readiness Evaluations, Mandatory Pre-Departure Inspections, SOLAS Equipment Inspections and the accreditation of suppliers and manufacturers of SOLAS appliances.”

And “It also ensures navigational safety through the development, establishment, maintenance and operation of Aids to Navigation.”

But everybody in the know, including ship captains who will not, however, speak for the record, will privately admit that the Coast Guard officers’ inspection of their ships is purely ceremonial. They do not look into the state of a ship’s equipment and safety facilities, or count the passengers to determine if there are enough lifeboats and life vests and, if every piece of cargo loaded is properly stowed and lashed to where it should be.

The PCG officers, a captain told The Times, assume ship masters to be officers and gentlemen who will do as the rules require.

An ABS-CBN and Newsbreak news item, however, reported on June 27 that “a Coast Guard official, who refused to be named for he is not authorized to speak on procedures, said the PCG inspection before a ship leaves port is limited to checking the passenger manifest and the Master’s Oath Safety of Departure.”

Echo of ‘Princess of the Orient’

Some of what the Marine Board of Inquiry has learned or will learn about the MV Princess of the Stars’ condition will echo the findings about the MV Princess of the Orient, which in 1998 sank in stormy seas near Cavite and Batangas. In this disaster, 200 died.

Coast Guard officials have stated that their agency cannot really do its many functions as thoroughly as they should. In the first place, the PCG does not have enough personnel. In the second place, it does not have enough equipment and vessels.

PNP Maritime Group

There is still another uniformed service involved in maritime affairs. This service is the Philippine National Police’s Maritime Group.

This agency’s vision is “To achieve and maintain peaceful and secured maritime environment in partnership with the community attuned to national development priorities.”

Its mission is “To enforce the law, maintain peace and order, and ensure public safety over Philippine Territorial Waters, lakes, and rivers, along coastal areas to include ports and harbors, and small islands for the security and sustainable development of the Maritime environment.”

Among its many functions is “To uphold the rule of law affecting the maritime environment,” which should include seeing to it that commercial ships obey regulations.

The international GMDSS

Besides lacking sophisticated ships of its own, the Coast Guard does not have the latest “Global Maritime Distress and Safety System” or GMDSS.

As described by Marine Buzz, in 1979, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) saw the need for an updated maritime communication system. It then collaborated with other institutions to create the Inmarsat system employing geostationary satellites positioned above the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Shortly thereafter, a polar orbiting satellite system was established to locate Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs).

Then the IMO upgraded the whole system into what is now known as the GMDSS, which provide a rapid and automated distress reporting and improved telecommunications for the maritime community.

The IMO amended its SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) convention in 1998 to employ this upgrade of the maritime safety communications procedures and equipment for the GMDSS.

Our Coast Guard does not have the complete set of basic equipment for GMDSS.

Manila Times

THE Board of Marine Inquiry hearings on the MV Princess of the Stars disaster are not over but some obvious conclusions may now be made.

The latest news at press time is that hearings may be held in Cebu so more survivors can be interviewed.

Meanwhile some “facts” are known:

• The Sulpicio Lines ship’s captain, who is most likely among those who have died, decided to sail despite the Sulpicio Port captain’s warning that Pagasa had issued a strong-storm warning.
• The MV Princess of the Stars is a passenger ferry, not a cargo ship.
• But the ship was carrying toxic cargo.
• The ship’s ballast tanks were not filled to capacity, precisely to accommodate the cargo. Ballasts are necessary to stabilize ships in strong-wind and big-wave situations.
• Sulpicio Lines is the owner of ships that got involved in other disasters and tragedies. One of them happened in 1987, on December 20, when more than 4,300 people died as a result of the collision of Sulpicio’s MV Doña Paz with Vector, a tanker. This, up to now, is the world’s greatest non-wartime sea disaster.

Once more, because of this latest disaster that has killed almost 800 passengers of MV Princess of the Stars, lawmakers and government officials are addressing safety issues of our domestic inter-island shipping transport system.

In the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel is calling for a review of the Maritime Industry Authority’s policy of granting permits to ancient vessels to continue operating as passenger ships.

The Marina is the government’s highest policy-making and inspecting body on maritime safety and transport. It is under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). Why, we must join Senator Pimentel in asking, do Marina and the DOTC grant certificates of seaworthiness to these floating coffins?

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, irked by Sulpicio Lines’ ability to go unpunished all these years despite the tragedies its ships have been involved in, wants special courts created to hear maritime cases.

He calls the Philippine record of maritime disasters “deplorable.” He calls the shipping companies “unscrupulous” and deplores their ability to escape their liabilities.

The horrible frequency of maritime disasters in our country, where the ferry system is the major means of transportation between our 7,100 islands, is an indictment of our entire maritime industry and the government regulators and lawmakers, said Sen. Rodolfo Biazon. He blames his own branch of government for having failed all these decades to pass strict laws to reform the maritime industry.

New laws should be passed to hold shipping companies and ship operators liable for sea disasters. The Philippine Coast Guard should be given more equipment and manpower.

But these laws are unacted upon. (See “Why are bills to reform the maritime industry not being attended to?”) The reason: There are powerful congressmen who are owners of shipping companies.

Seaworthiness certificates

Marina only inspects ships once a year to determine their seaworthiness. Experts on safety say these inspections are cursory and once a year is not enough.

But is this another case of regulatory capture by vested interests? Is the Marina under the thumb of the shipping companies?

Why are there so many shipping disasters?

The simplest answer is that we have bad laws regulating the maritime industry. These laws are being badly enforced by possibly compromised government agencies. Most of the shipping companies are badly managed. And there are some, like Sulpicio, that are not faithful to their passengers.