EDITORIAL - Accident season

As usual, the start of the school year has been greeted by regular heavy rains and the onset of the typhoon season. A tropical cyclone is expected this week – the second to hit the country this year.

Even without a weather disturbance, a ship sank off Palawan Tuesday night. As of yesterday, five passengers and crew of the M/V Josille 2 were confirmed dead while 54 others were rescued by local fishermen and crewmembers of a private motorboat and a yacht.

The cause of the sinking is still being determined. Initial reports received by the Coast Guard indicated that the wooden-hulled ship, owned by Atienza Shipping Lines based in Batangas City, ran aground, listed and sank. The Coast Guard said 13 of the rescued passengers and crew were not in the manifest of the 95.96-gross-ton vessel, and it was possible that more were not in the manifest. Search and rescue operations therefore continued last night.

Maritime accidents occur with depressing regularity in this country. The disasters have claimed thousands of lives in the past 30 years. Ships, many of them several decades old, are often overloaded and manned by crew lacking qualifications. Cargo stored haphazardly set off fires. Vessels sink even during minor storms. In recent years terrorism has been added to the risks taken by passengers and crew of the numerous inter-island ferries and motorized boats that often provide the only means of access to certain islands in this country.

Despite the numerous deadly accidents, and the fact that this archipelago of 7,100 islands has one of the world’s most extensive coastlines, enforcement of maritime safety rules remains lax. The latest accident off Palawan at the start of the typhoon season should remind maritime authorities that there are safety rules to be strictly enforced, and penalties to be imposed on violators. Maritime transportation remains popular especially among the masses. Those who want to meet this demand must be compelled to give priority to passenger safety.