Sulpicio sues PAGASA for inaccurate weather forecasting
By Allison Lopez, Katherine Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer, INQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:26:00 06/30/2008
Filed Under: Maritime Accidents, Typhoon Frank, Sulpicio ferry disaster, Weather
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Sulpicio Lines Inc. filed a P3-million civil damage suit against the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration for allegedly giving inaccurate weather forecast on typhoon Frank (international codename: Fengshen).
Sulpicio Lines filed the damage suit at the Manila Regional Trial Court Monday for the state weather bureau’s “gross negligence and incompetence” in predicting the typhoon’s path which resulted in the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of Romblon last June 21 with over 800 passengers and crew on board, said Arthur Lim, legal counsel for SLI.
“I leave that to the court to decide,” said Lim, who last week called the ferry sinking “an act of God.”
He said PAGASA’s failure to provide proper and updated weather forecasts during the onslaught of typhoon Frank sent the vessel “right into the jaws of death.”
The Bureau of Marine Inquiry on Friday said the ill-fated ferry sailed into the eye of the storm instead of taking shelter.
The weather bureau said the typhoon, which was supposed to hover along the Bicol region, suddenly changed path and hit Romblon and the provinces on Panay Island in the Visayas.
The MV Princess of the Stars left the Manila port at 8 p.m. on June 20 under Signal no. 1, with its officials thinking that it was well out of the way of the typhoon path. By the time the typhoon changed its course and PAGASA had issued revised storm signal warnings on Saturday (June 21), the vessel had run smack into the typhoon and its engine conked out.
PAGASA had denied it was remiss in promptly sending out storm warnings, saying it did so after every six hours.
Sulpicio Lines in its complaint demanded moral and exemplary damages, litigation fees, and attorney’s fees amounting to about P4.45 million.
Lim said the members of the Go family “have been unjustly pilloried, publicly vilified, libeled, and badmouthed due to the tragedy caused by PAGASA’s “tortious, illegal, and malevolent acts.”
Sulpicio Lines was also reported as having blamed the Del Monte Philippines for allegedly failing to disclose to the shipping firm that the 400 boxes it had wanted shipped to Mindanao contained the highly toxic endosulfan. But it had yet to issue a statement on Monday if it would sue the pineapple firm.
The 400 boxes, which were supposed to be loaded in a Sulpicio cargo ship, somehow ended up being loaded in the passenger vessel, MV Princess of the Stars, in violation of regulations.
Two days after the sinking, Del Monte Philippines informed the national government that its shipment of endosulfan was trapped inside the sunken ferry. This prompted the government to suspend retrieval operations at the sight and order its divers to undergo toxicity tests.
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