A maritime disaster on Cebu’s doorstep!

For our special presentation on our Talkshow on Straight from the Sky, we are proud to have with us Ms. Olive Ramos, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the latest airline to service Cebuanos at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) called Tiger Airways or Tiger Air for short. That Ms. Olive Ramos is CEO of an airline company is interesting enough. After all, the Aviation Industry is supposedly a man’s world. With the news that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) suspended the operations of Zest Air, suddenly Tiger Air looms as an alternative airline that passengers ought to take.

For those interested in booking flights in Tiger Air, you can visit their website at www.tigerair.com and you can do this online. Because Zest Air cannot yet fly its routes, Tiger Air sent me a message that they are operating an additional flight on Monday departing at 8:45am aside from their usual schedule. So watch this very interesting show on Tiger Air on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00pm with replays on MyTV channel 30 at 9:00pm M-W-F.

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It was a sea disaster that was totally unexpected as it was very close to the Port of Cebu when the 2GO ferry the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas was coming in from Nasipit, Butuan, passed over the Lawis Ledge off the City of Talisay when the MV Sulcon Express 7 allegedly rammed the 2GO and as the survivors reported, the vessel suddenly listed badly and in less than 20 minutes, it disappeared into the waters off Talisay City.

As of presstime, some 31 passengers have been confirmed dead by the Philippine Coast Guard, 171 passengers (10 of them are the vessel’s crew) are still missing, while 715 have been rescued…and due to a near stormy weather last Saturday afternoon, Search and Rescue operations had to be temporarily stopped. Let’s hope the missing persons will be found soon.

What went wrong off the Lawis Ledge? There was no bad weather affecting Metro Cebu last Friday evening. But I gathered from a texted report that ship captains have always believed that this was the most dangerous part of sea when ships enter the Port of Cebu as the ledge forces vessels into a narrow passage way. But despite this problem, we’ve never had any major disaster happening there until now.

Perhaps maritime investigators should immediately call upon the officers and crew of the M/V Sulcon Express 7 because their vessel, though its nose is very badly damaged, didn’t sink and no one was injured. From the video footage that we saw over ABS-CBN’s the World Tonight one can see that the bow of the M/V Sulcon Express 7 was badly broken. Accordingly, it seems that the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas was hit on its starboard side…and at full speed, which is probably the reason why the 2GO vessel sank right away.

Just for the record, the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas is owned by 2GO and is operated by the Negros Navigation Company (Nenaco). The Aboitiz Corporation sold it a few years ago. Meanwhile, the M/V Sulcon Express 7 is owned by the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. (PSACC), which was formerly Sulpicio Lines Shipping Corp. The Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) announced that both shipping companies are now under suspension pending the investigation of this disaster.

Meanwhile, a text brigade has been sent around for the media to look at the list of the names of the missing passengers…just in case a Janet Lim Napoles many be included in that list? Call it funny! I only texted back to my friends that I don’t think Janet Napoles took that vessel…then another text came that perhaps former Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez may have been on board that vessel too. Yes, people can still have a joke even in the midst of this deadly disaster that struck Cebu over the weekend. We will be looking at more reports into this disaster as they come.

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No doubt this ship disaster has stricken off reports of the missing Janet Lim Napoles from national headlines. But there is no truth to the rumor that Malacañang “engineered” this ship disaster in order to rid the national headlines of the P10-billion scam, which has not only gone viral in the social media networking sites, but it has incensed civil society and the Catholic Church…more so that there’s been some effort to drag out church personalities as “friends” of Napoles.

That suddenly Janet Lim Napoles cannot be found…and therefore the NBI cannot arrest her is now subject to so many rumors because Malacañang spokespersons devote themselves to mostly propaganda. So people are saying that perhaps Janet Napoles was tipped off to go into hiding or get out of the country…so that it makes Justice Secretary Sec. Leila de Lima look good in the eyes of Congress who has bypassed her so many times. So will she finally get the nod of the Commission on Appointments? Abangan!

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