Prosecute officers of ill-fated vessel, justice department told

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez has made strong recommendations to the Department of Justice for the prosecution of the captain and chief mate of the ill-fated vessel M/V Asia South Korea.

This, after the joint investigating panel of the DOTC, Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and Coast Guard found the two merchant marine officers grossly negligent in navigating through rock formations that dotted the waters off Bantayan Island in Cebu. The overloaded vessel sank while en route to Iloilo on Dec. 23, 1999.

Alvarez directed Marina to initiate administrative proceedings against ship captain Porfirio Labagday and chief mate Saturnino Flores as well as second mate Roel Russel and purser Gregorio Caballero for the revocation of their STCW Certificates of Endorsement and Seafarer’s Identification and Records Books (SIRB).

Marina was also directed to start administrative proceedings against the vessel’s owner, the Trans-Asia Shipping Lines, for violation of the conditions of its Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) and pertinent Marina memoranda and for breach of its franchise under Section 16(n) of Commonwealth Act 146.