(Why are there so many shipping disasters?) Bad laws, bad enforcement, bad management, bad faith
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.
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