‘Indemnify kin of Carmela fire victims’

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) has ordered Montenegro Shipping Lines to indemnify the families of 44 passengers who died when its ship M/V Maria Carmela caught fire off Lucena, Quezon last April 11.

In a memorandum, Marina suspended the shipping firm’s operations in the Masbate-Lucena route until it has fully paid the victims’ families.

The agency also denied the company’s petition to extend its authority to operate in this route to another vessel, M/V Erlinda.

Acting Marina administrator Oscar Sevilla said the families of the 44 confirmed dead would each receive P100,000 from Capital Insurance Company, the shipping firm’s insurer.

Twenty-eight people were recorded as missing in the sea tragedy. Seventy-four others were injured. — Jose Aravilla