Safety at sea: PPA and Marina

This calls for an investigation.

The Philippine Ports Authority in late 2004 procured 30 baggage x-ray machines at P6.7 million apiece, and 30 walk-through metal detectors each costing P716,000. But throughout 2005, only five units of each were put to operation – two at the Manila North Harbor and one each at the ports of Batangas, Puerto Princesa, and Cagayan de Oro. The rest never were deployed as promised to prevent a recurrence of the terror bombing of a passenger ferry in Manila in early 2004.

The reason: the five x-ray boxes and five metal detectors frequently bogged down. Worse, the PPA supplier was always slow to repair them. Even worse, it turned out that the PPA did not train enough personnel to run the machines. Thus, the PPA could not secure the necessary clearances to use the equipment.

Clearly something was wrong from the start. In acquiring the equipment, the PPA apparently did not apply stringent qualification rules on the supplier. Hence, it was stuck with one whose attitude was to take the money and run. More than that, it did not require the supplier to train enough port personnel to operate the machines. Most likely, there was hanky-panky in the purchase, with part of the price that should have gone to after-sales service and training landing in the pockets of PPA officials. To think that they even announce that the seas are safer these days although the security equipment are gathering dust in their warehouse.

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Over at the Maritime Industry Authority, things are beginning to look up. The agency in charge of regulating shipping lines used to be headed by the very agents of the owners. Not anymore under Administrator Vicente T. Suazo Jr.

In recent months Suazo has sent the message that happy days are over as far as instant permits are concerned. Late in December he prohibited Negros Navigation from sailing m/v Ezekiel Moreno for exceeding its dry-docking schedule. Company execs frantically pleaded for reconsideration, for they already had sold tickets for holiday travelers. Suazo did not budge.

Suazo also issued a cease and desist order on m/v Dipolog Princess of Sulpicio Lines. Passengers had texted him about repeated stalling and running adrift at sea en route to several destinations. A swift check of records showed that the ship was due for periodic repair and maintenance in early January. Shipping managers appealed for extension of the dry-docking deadline, which was usual in the past. Suazo simply said no because the breakdowns were precisely the signs of overdue refurbishing.

Suazo also had disallowed Gothong Lines from running m/v Manila Bay, again for operating beyond the scheduled dry-docking.

The administrator is becoming extremely unpopular with shipping execs. But at least there’s someone at the Marina who is looking after the safety of passengers for a change.

The police have made swift arrests of seven suspects in the slaying of Judge Henrick Gingoyon. They have in custody the alleged gunman, the lookout, the getaway motorcycle driver, the go-between who contacted the guns for hire, the motorcycle supplier, and their two hideout maintainers. They even have an extra-judicial confession of one of them. But where’s the mastermind?

The question bears asking because the speed of the arrests is matched by the slowness in identifying the brains. A police colonel initially was tagged as the murder contractor because of a four-year fight with the judge that cost the former’s promotion. But investigators seem to find no link to him. He boldly held a press conference to confirm his grudge but deny it was deep enough to drive him to murder. Even then, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez is discounting any other mastermind or motive for slaying the judge who recently ruled against the government on the controversial Piatco case.

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Speaking of Piatco, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. is urging the government to settle with Piatco in order finally to open the Manila international airport Terminal-3. This is strange, for the opening of the facility has nothing to do with Piatco anymore. The issue now is for the government to pay the overdue fees of the Japanese builder so that it can finish the remaining 3 percent of the works.

Piatco, owned by the Cheng family and Fraport of Germany, had contracted Takenaka to construct the terminal. When the Supreme Court declared Piatco’s contract void ab initio, Piatco stopped paying Takenaka. The firm naturally stopped work.

Meanwhile, the Chengs sued the government in Singapore, while Fraport sued in Washington for recovery of its capital. The Chengs and Fraport also sued each other in Manila for the deal gone sour. And the government expropriated the unfinished terminal, which was why the case landed on Judge Gingoyon’s bench.

Takenaka holds the master plans and the operating manuals for the high-tech equipment. Government has no choice but deal with it, for the building was 97-percent completed. The next thing government must do is find an outfit that will operate the terminal, if it will not do so itself. Piatco is out of the equation since it holds no more build-operate-transfer contract.

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