Sulpicio executive, dead captain indicted for sea mishap

MANILA, Philippines – A year after the disaster, the Department of Justice approved yesterday the filing of criminal charges against an official of Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) and the captain of the ferry Princess of the Stars, which capsized at the height of a typhoon off Romblon, killing 500 people on June 21, 2008.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said prosecutors will file today charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, physical injuries and damage to property against SLI vice president for administration Edward Go and Princess of the Stars skipper Florencio Marimon at the Manila Regional Trial Court.

Marimon was among those who died in the tragedy. His body was among the 447 victims recovered.

The Cebu-bound Princess
of the Stars left the Port of Manila but capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon at the peak of typhoon “Frank.”

Out of the more than 800 passengers and crew on board, only about 32 people survived. More than 400 bodies were recovered but over 300 victims are still missing.

Salvage crews also recovered 402 barrels of the toxic pesticide endosulfan from the wreckage of the ship after six days of salvage operations.

“This is the initial justice that we can give the victims. The families are still in anguish and there can be no substitute for any death,” Devanadera told reporters.

Go and Marimon were also placed on the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration to prevent them from leaving the country and eluding prosecution. Prosecutors said the filing of the complaint against the two respondents also includes civil liabilities.

Prosecutors recommended P320,000 bail for the temporary freedom of each respondent.

Prosecutors led by Senior State Prosecutor Emilia Victorio concluded that Go should be held liable for the tragedy because of his “failure to prevent or discourage the ship to depart from the Port of Manila despite prevailing bad weather conditions” as the official “responsible for operations, movement and safety of the vessel.”

The prosecutors said Go “failed to give orders to drop anchor or take refuge for temporary shelter for the ship.”

Marimon, on the other hand, was negligent and “lacked foresight and precaution in observing seamanship rules” when he decided to sail despite the bad weather conditions.

“His decision to proceed with voyage despite receipt of severe weather condition bulletin showed his ‘extreme lack of precaution’ that ended (with) the ship moving directly into the eye of the typhoon,” stated the resolution.

Victorio explained that the panel was not informed of the recovery of Marimon’s body during the preliminary investigation. She said the prosecutors would still include the ship captain as a respondent and his death could be raised during court hearing.

Devanadera stressed that while only two were initially charged for the maritime tragedy, prosecutors would further investigate the liabilities of other respondents in the complaint filed by some families of the victims and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.

Marina exec apologizes to victims

Administrator Ma. Elena Bautista of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) finally apologized to the victims and their families.

“I want to say sorry to all the families. In some way, the Marina has some responsibility. I will try to fix this and help the sea travelers because we know that our words are not enough to comfort them, but we hope that they could see that we are sincere in our efforts to help them,” Bautista said.

She admitted that she was deeply affected by the number of maritime accidents that have happened since she became Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) undersecretary for the maritime sector and later Marina administrator.

During her watch, there have been five major maritime incidents wherein an estimated 1,000 people perished. The biggest number of casualties came from the Princess of the Stars with more than 500 dead.

The four other maritime incidents involved the M/B Don Dexter in Masbate, M/V Roliv 5 in Iloilo, M/B Maejan in Cagayan and M/B Commando 6 in Batangas.

Bautista admitted that she was taking these tragic events at sea “personally.”

“I hope you understand that this is a personal crusade to have no more deaths within the Philippine seas,” she said.

She clarified that she is not making an outright admission that Marina is fully at fault because there were other contributing factors – some might even say that the typhoon was an act of God.

During yesterday’s simple celebration of Marina’s 35th anniversary at the Philippine Navy, Bautista called on all Marina officers and personnel to be in solidarity with those who had died in these accidents and take responsibility. Apart from a Mass, they also scattered white rose petals into Manila Bay.

Devanadera said it took prosecutors a year to come up with their findings because “it took them a while to secure documents like testimonies and certification from the weather bureau.

“What’s important here is that on the first anniversary of the incident, we were able to come up with a concrete action. This is the most that we can do and we will try to speed up (investigation) on the other respondents,” she explained.

SLI officials react

SLI vice president for marketing Jordan Go said they just heard the news of the filing of charges against the company’s officials over the radio and watched it in the news.

“We were surprised that a resolution has been issued. We have yet to get a copy of the resolution. We still have no details about the case – we don’t know what to comment on. It would be premature to make a comment at this time,” said Go.

They said they would also let their legal team handle the case.

Meanwhile, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) will ask the courts tomorrow to allow the exhumation of the 74 bodies in Cebu.

PAO chief lawyer Persida Rueda-Acosta said they will file a motion of authority before the Cebu Regional Trial Court branch 10 and Manila Regional Trial Court branch 51 to dig up and identify the recovered remains of the passengers that were buried in Cebu last Friday.

She said they have already volunteered to help in the identification of some of the bodies with the help of an independent forensic group, but the NBI refused the offer.

Dr. Benito Molino, an international forensic consultant on human rights cases and IFG member, said the NBI should have consulted with the relatives and surviving family members of the victims before the bodies were buried.

The NBI decided to bury the recovered remains from the ship after DNA tests did not match any of those supplied by the relatives. There were also no relatives who claimed some of the identified bodies, Acosta said.

For his part, Levi Samuel, spokesperson for relatives of the victims of the Princess of the Stars, said authorities in Cebu did not inform them that the remains would be buried last Friday.

“We just learned that the bodies would be buried without consent,” Samuel said.

Some relatives of the Princess of the Stars victims went to the PAO office for the press conference to commemorate the first anniversary of the tragedy. - Edu Punay, Evelyn Macairan, Dennis Carcamo