Ferry victims’ families warned against signing blank sheets
By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:01:00 07/02/2008
Filed Under: Sulpicio ferry disaster, Legal services, Civil & Public Services
MANILA, Philippines -- Families of victims of the ferry that capsized off Romblon province during the onslaught of typhoon “Frank” this June should not sign any blank sheet containing a special power of attorney (SPA) provision, a government lawyer warned Wednesday.
“They should not sign any documents that they do no understand. They need to consult lawyers so that implications of these documents can be fully explained to them,” said Persida Rueda-Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney’s Office, helping relatives of the victims of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars.
Rueda-Acosta issued the warning amid reports that unidentified persons were asking families of the ferry victims to sign a blank sheet with an SPA at the Manila office of Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI), owner of the inter-island vessel.
The blank sheet, which was being distributed Wednesday, allows an “attorney in fact” to:
• negotiate their claims;
• receive and encash checks; and
• execute and sign documents that will be required.
Acosta said the name of the lawyer on the sheet remains blank.
“If they will sign this document, who is the person they are authorizing to process their claims? And this document seems to be giving an indirect waiver [for the victims’ families] not to pursue any case against Sulpicio,” she said.
“We do not know who distributed these SPAs so we have to be very careful,” she said.
She added that it was more questionable since the SPA sheets were distributed at about the same time that the PAO
was refused entry inside the office of SLI.
Acosta said families of the victims who would need the assistance of the PAO could go to its office in Manila or Quezon City.
Sulpicio has announced that it would give the ferry victims’ families P200,000 each.
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