M/V PRINCESS OF THE STARS TRAGEDY: SLI challenges PAO over custody of five remains

CEBU, Philippines - Sulpicio Lines Inc. has filed a motion questioning the actions of the Public Attorneys Office in taking custody of five unidentified remains of victims of the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars and turning them over to the Cosmopolitan funeral homes.

PAO regional director Maria Calinawan said that SLI questioned their capability to identify the bodies.

PAO is set to attend the hearing scheduled for Friday by Regional Trial Court Branch 10 judge Soliver Peras. Calinawan said that the PAO will argue that they do have the capability to identify bodies as they have a new forensic laboratory.

Calinawan also said they will question why the said motion of SLI was filed late.

According to Calinawan, the five bodies are currently in Manila undergoing identifying procedures. She added that there is a big percentage that within this week the cadavers will be identified and will be brought back to their families.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the tragedy. The M/V Princess of the Stars sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon at the height of Typhoon Frank.

Also yesterday, the retrieval of skeletal remains from the passenger-cargo vessel was officially terminated.

Transportation Undersecretary for Maritime Transport Thompson Lantion said he agreed to stop the retrieval operations after hearing the report of the Coast Guard, Maritime Industry Authority and the salvor Royal Jessan Petromin Resources Inc.

“We have searched the vessel’s area 100 percent and could no longer find any more bodies,” Lt. Cmdr. Marco Antonio Gines, Coast Guard Special Operations Group chief reported to Lantion.

However, Lantion said they would resume their search inside the vessel once it has been up righted.

“We would shift from underwater retrieval to clearance operations,” he said.

Data consolidated by the M/V POTS Task Force showed that when the roll-on/roll-off vessel sank on June 21, 2008, 864 people were on board.

This comprised of 724 passengers, 111 crew members and 29 contractors.

Of the 864 people, only 33 survived.

Of the 515 casualties, 458 have been identified and 57 remain unidentified.

During the last phase or salvaging operations, 70 skeletal remains were found, leaving 246 people missing.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said they would have to wait for the wreck to be removed.

“Once they have up righted the ship, we will check if some of them abandoned the ship when it was about to sink or if some remains were left inside,” he said.

Vener Balsamo, RJPRI projection engineer, said it might take them four to five months before they resume their operations since they have to take precaution.

“The vessel has been divided into two parts and both have been submerged, 10 feet apart,” he said.

“If we keep it afloat and there is a typhoon this might cause the line to break and the ship might go adrift and there could be a possible collision with an incoming vessel. Right now, the vessel is stable underwater. It is the safest because there is no movement.”

Belsamo said they will also be installing markers to determine the location of the ship. The salvor might resume operations in late October, he added.

Belsamo said it might take them 45 days or until last week of November or early December to refloat the vessel. It would take them time to remove the water from the vessel, he added.

Belsamo said they hope to complete their operations by middle of year 2011.

“The vessel would further be cut and the scrap metal would be brought to our shipyard in Navotas,” he said.

It would take them five days to travel from Romblon to their shipyard, he added.

Gines said 15 Coast Guard divers took part in salvage operations, along with six divers hired by the salvor.

Forty-one or a majority of the skeletal remains in the third phase were found in the Deck C or economy section.

An underwater video taken by the divers showed them using flashlights as they moved inside the dark passageways and sections of the ship.

They also encountered difficulty in penetrating the “abandoned area” and they had to cut through the hull.

Tamayo said they were able to tow the vessel; they have removed the endosulfan and the fuel; and they continue to move the wreck.

The Princess of the Stars was owned and operated by the Sulpicio Lines Inc. It was sold to RJPRI in December 2008. (THE FREEMAN)