MANILA, Philippines—As divers undertake the grim task of retrieving hundreds of bodies believed to be trapped in the sunken MV Princess of the Stars, an angry President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said in Washington on Tuesday that Sulpicio Lines had to answer for the tragedy.
“We are holding the ferry company accountable to ensure that we find out how this ferry tragedy could have occurred so we can take steps to make sure it never happens again,” Ms Arroyo said in a speech at a dinner hosted for her by the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-ASEAN Business Council at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington DC.
In Manila, lawmakers also took Sulpicio to task for the tragedy.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the government should “punish swiftly” Sulpicio Lines if found negligent in the sinking of the ferry.
“Only if we punish more and punish swiftly will painful lessons be learned. If we will not deal with this latest tragedy with resolve and urgency, we will be sending out the dangerous message that negligent public transport operators can get away with malpractice,” Pangilinan said in a statement.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Sulpicio Lines “should have been stripped of its franchise a long time ago.”
Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri urged owners of the shipping company to go into another line of business. “Sulpicio Lines owners should stop their shipping business and shift to other ventures such as banking,” he said.
Thorough probe
Hours before her keynote speech at the dinner, she told reporters covering her 10-day US trip that she was deeply saddened by the loss of life from Typhoon “Frank” (international name: Fengshen) and the ferry tragedy.
“I am also angry at what happened with the capsizing of the ferry and demand a thorough investigation to find out exactly what happened, why it happened and if it could have been avoided,” Ms Arroyo said at a luncheon with reporters shortly after she met with US President George W. Bush in the White House.
Overloaded?
“The investigation must reveal the facts so I will not assign any blame at this point. But rest assured, we will get to the bottom of this tragedy and hold people accountable if that is what the finding will reveal,” she said.
Zubiri said the MV Princess of the Stars could have been overloaded.
“I received information that the design of the boat 10 years ago could have been altered and the management added more lodging berths on top, making the boat top heavy,” he said at a weekly forum in San Juan City.
Zubiri said he would file a bill requiring media entities to come out with an hourly report on weather conditions that would form part of a media company’s public service mandated in its franchise.
In the House of Representatives, Senior Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez expressed doubt that the weather bureau came up with an adequate warning that would have prevented the ferry from leaving the Port of Manila.
“Regarding the failure of the Philippine Coast Guard to stop the MV Princess of the Stars in view of the typhoon warning, there is a need to establish first that indeed the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) issued such a warning,” Golez said in a statement.
Shelter in Looc Bay
Nonetheless, Golez said that the decision to travel and what to do during the voyage ultimately rested with the captain of the vessel.
He said he had information that a dozen ships sought shelter from the typhoon in Looc Bay in waters off Tablas Island, something that according to him the Sulpicio captain should have done.
Obligations to relatives
At a forum in San Juan City, Science Undersecretary Gilbert Yumul lashed out at the Sulpicio management for abandoning its obligations to the relatives of the victims.
“Being the owner of the boat, the management of Sulpicio Lines should take the lead in addressing the problems that are now being attended to by the Philippine National Red Cross and the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” he said.
Yumul said the Sulpicio management had been told to create a group that would handle the needs and grievances of the relatives of the passengers of the capsized boat.
“They were told by Dr. Anthony Golez (on Tuesday evening) to form a crisis committee and face the victims’ relatives,” he said.
At the forum, Yumul also blamed the missing captain, Florencio Marimon Sr., saying he had much leeway to act as he had been informed of the weather.
“It was the captain’s judgment call to seek shelter and declare abandon ship,” Yumul said when asked why the ship continued to sail despite rough seas.
Like an airplane, the boat was following a track line that would allow the captain to look for possible shelter when the ship ran into the path of the storm.
Why did it sail?
In Washington, Ms Arroyo demanded to know why the vessel was allowed to set sail despite the information that it was on the path of the typhoon.
She made the statement to reporters who had lunch with her at the hotel where she was staying.
In the hotel, Ms Arroyo asked for an update from Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno before she presided over another videoconference meeting with National Disaster Coordinating Council officials led by Vice President Noli de Castro and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in Malacańang.
Most passengers trapped
Puno reported to Ms Arroyo that a survivor had recounted that only about 50 made it out of the ferry when the ship captain belatedly gave the order to abandon ship.
“But the one that we’re able to interview, one survivor, said that when the captain gave the order to abandon (ship), they only saw about 50 able to abandon ship because (things happened) very quick. And when they were still in the process of leaving, the ferry suddenly keeled over. So the fact that we have found 48 survivors and about 18 bodies, the great bulk—about 814 or 817—were inside the (boat),” Puno said.
He said US Navy divers who joined in the search saw many bodies in the ferry.
This was confirmed by Transportation Undersecretary Len Bautista, who reported on the search mission of her department during the videoconference with Ms Arroyo, the third since the President arrived in the United States on June 21.
Bautista said only 115 of the 849 passengers of the ferry had been found—48 of whom were survivors.
She said divers from the Coast Guard and the Navy were able to enter the bridge of the ship and retrieved three bodies on Tuesday. The divers found 15 more bodies but they had to bring equipment to get the bodies to the surface intact.
Bautista said the search and rescue effort would continue until all the bodies were accounted for.
She called on Sulpicio Lines to make public the passenger manifest so that the relatives would know whether their loved ones had been on that ship or not.
US assistance
In her speech to the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-Asean Business Council, Ms Arroyo said the Philippines received assistance from the US government in the form of aid and several US Navy vessels sent to the site of the sinking.
During her 50-minute meeting with Bush in the Oval Office, the American leader said he had sent another aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, to help in the search and rescue of the victims.
On Monday, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, a former ambassador to the Philippines, told Ms Arroyo that the US government had dispatched an aircraft carrier and a reconnaissance plane to help in the effort.
Aside from US assistance, there was an outpouring of support from countries such as Spain for the victims of Typhoon Frank and of the sinking.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed condolences for the victims during a meeting with Ms Arroyo on Tuesday afternoon, while US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao expressed similar condolences at the start of the dinner attended by some 200 American businessmen and CEOs. With reports from Norman Bordadora and Gil Cabacungan Jr.
