Caltex cleared in ‘Paz’ sinking

US oil retailer Caltex (Philippines) Inc. was absolved of liability yesterday by the Court of Appeals (CA) for the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster in 1987, court officials said.

The court upheld a 1997 lower court ruling that dismissed claims against the company by the operators of the Doña Paz ferry.

The ferry had been rammed in the dark by the M/TVector, a small oil tanker chartered by Caltex. It sank, resulting in the loss of about 3,000 lives off Mindoro on Dec. 20, 1987.

CA Associate Justice Rodrigo Cosico’s ruling excluded Caltex from liability for compensating the victims’ heirs. The suit was filed by Sulpicio Lines and its insurer, Prudential Guarantee Insurance, against the Vector’s operators and its charterer.

Cosico wrote in his ruling that it has been settled in Philippines jurisprudence that the charterer of a ship only has "the right to indicate the ports or places at which the vessel shall call or enter but... has no jurisdiction or control over the acts of the captain."

The charterer "is not liable for damages by the negligence of the latter in handling the ship," the judge, of the court’s seventh division, added in his 13-page ruling.

Caltex had chartered Vector Shipping on a quarterly basis to deliver gasoline, diesel, kerosene and other flammable oil products to various depots south of Manila.

Caltex had "no obligation to, nor is it in a position, to determine the seaworthiness of the vessel it employs," the judge said, citing Article 826 of the Code of Maritime Commerce.

Sulpicio Lines had blamed the Vector and Caltex for the fiery sinking of both vessels, alleging that the tanker lacked navigational sidelights and was grossly unseaworthy and that its master lacked a chief mate’s license.

Sulpicio Lines has received P25 million (about $473,000) in insurance payments from Prudential representing part of the lost value of the sunken carrier.

It has since filed for damages against Vector Shipping and Caltex to indemnify itself for cargo and passenger claims it had already paid out for the accident that occurred in Tablas Strait off Mindoro. — AFP, Jose Rodel Clapano