To MARINA: Would you buy a 20-year-old car?
During the last full council meeting of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7), the body approved two important issues. The first was the creation of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that would investigate all aviation, maritime, rail and bus disasters. For the past 20 years since the sinking of Sulpicio Lines’ Doña Paz, Congress, despite all the high-profile investigations on all ship disasters, has failed to come up with any laws that would have helped our maritime industry.
That the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) allows shipping companies to purchase 20-year-old ships has never been questioned or the subject of an intense investigation by Congress. But whenever a vessel sinks or burns, this issue surfaces and resurfaces and eventually forgotten. Today, thanks to the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars this issue has once more resurfaced and since we are all Filipinos, I know in my heart that when the news of this disaster is no longer headline-worthy, it will once again be forgotten until the next disaster strikes! If there is anything woefully wrong with us Filipinos, we never learn the bitter lessons of our past!
Last Friday afternoon, I had coffee with my good friend, Deputy Speaker Rep. Raul del Mar, at Figaro’s at
As for the issue on whether the
For my TV show Straight from the Sky tonight, I have with us Councilor Edgardo Labella, one of
But as a public servant who wanted our people to learn from the mistakes of the past, he agreed to do the show.
Councilor Labella was with his wife Joy on their way to
Councilor Labella was found two days later by fishermen and was reunited with his wife. He attributes his survival to no one but God’s love for him. While
One thing I learned from Councilor Labella is that often passengers insist that a ship sails despite the heavy seas. Thus the blaming game should also include the victims of the disaster themselves! Indeed, how many passengers would insist or even bribe a Coast Guard employee so he or she could board a ship, otherwise they might miss their fiesta? Scenes like this are repeated over and over in different ports in this country! If we want to solve this problem, then MARINA or the Coast Guard ought to establish a fail-safe system to prevent the overloading of ships.
Now as for Sulpicio Lines, some kind of PR work is apparently in the offing, with one-page ads both in the national and local newspapers asking the President to allow Sulpicio Lines to operate once more. This PR effort seems to make Sulpicio Lines the victim in this incident. But with their grim track record in ferrying passengers to their deaths, Sulpicio Lines’ public conveyance ought to be cancelled. But let them operate their cargo ships!
* * *
For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday,
- Latest
- Trending