EDITORIAL – Human imprudence

Even as the tragic story of the Princess of the Stars continues to unfold, two ships brushed against each other off Liloan last week, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision that would have meant another tragic loss in lives.

Accidents are called such because they are unintended occurences. Nobody wants an accident to happen. Clearly, the captains of both ships did not want another accident. But there they were, in another close call, a close brush with death.

Obviously there is something wrong with the Philippine maritime industry and it is time our leaders take a long hard look at what is ailing the industry and begin charting plans on how to go about healing it.

For instance, there is something terribly wrong when a ship loaded with passengers would willfully set sail in face of an impending storm simply because it is of a size that is beyond those banned from sailing under a certain alert level.

A storm is a storm. It is a weather disturbance whose power can cause untold misery. No man has yet been born who can master the weather, or a method of prediction found that can accurately foretell which way a typhoon would go.

In face of such clearcut limitations, it should have been the rule to ground any ship in face of any impending storm. Schedules may be disrupted, unearned revenues may mount, and great human inconvenience may be experienced.

But if there is one certainty that can be gained from such an act of prudence, it is the certainty that no lives will be lost. People and businesses may suffer, but not quite the misery of a tragedy such as what we have seen, and been seeing repeatedly over the years.

The owner of the sunken ferry is blaming the weather bureau. The weather bureau is blaming the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is blaming lack of equipment. How sad that no one is taking the blaming and blaming human imprudence.