MANILA, Philippines—A joint congressional inquiry opens on Monday with representatives from government agencies overseeing the maritime industry and Sulpicio Lines Inc. summoned to shed light on the June 21 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars in stormy Visayan seas.
The House committees on transportation and on oversight are under orders from Speaker Prospero Nograles to find out the accountability of the state agencies and Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ferry, and to craft legislation to prevent similar disasters.
The Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) has been investigating since June 24 the disaster that befell the 23,800-ton vessel during a typhoon off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province while en route from Manila to Cebu City with 864 passengers and crew members aboard.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council’s latest report on June 29 said 56 survived the tragedy, 173 died and the rest were listed as unaccounted for.
Efforts to retrieve the dead inside the sunken ferry have been delayed after it was announced that the vessel carried the toxic pesticide endosulfan. Authorities have decided to refloat the vessel to remove the cargo of 10 tons of pesticide, an operation that would take at least three months, before the bodies could be recovered and identified.
Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, transportation committee chair, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that officials from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and Sulpicio Lines had been called to the hearing.
‘Heads will roll’
“Let them defend themselves and let us see if we can come up with legislation out of this,” Puentevella said in a telephone interview. “Let’s give them their day in court before heads will roll.”
Sulpicio has said the ferry sailed into the path of the typhoon because of the weather bureau’s failure to provide adequate warnings—a charge the PAGASA denies.
Nograles has said the government should make sure everyone responsible for the tragedy will be punished.
Puentevella is looking at the creation of a maritime super-agency that will oversee the PPA, Marina and PCG. He said the Department of Transportation and Communications was already “spread out too thin.” The DoTC oversees the three agencies along with air transport and communications services.
Puentevella said representatives from pineapple companies Del Monte and Dole would be invited in the next hearing “because it was only recently that their names cropped up.” These firms have been exempted from the government ban on endosulfan because of apprehensions their plantations would suffer pest infestation.
Other House committees are likely to join the joint inquiry, including legislative franchises chaired by Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron and environment chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s brother-in-law.
Focus on legislation
Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Manuel Roxas II Sunday urged the House to focus on legislative matters to avoid muddling the BMI’s investigation.
“Let us wait for the BMI to discover the truth. We already have had plenty of investigations on marine accidents and if we want to change the rules, we can do that but let us leave the BMI alone in its hearings,” Enrile told dzBB radio.
Roxas said the lawmakers should focus on:
• Toughening up the country’s maritime regulations.
• Guidelines on the deployment of ships in bad weather.
• Requiring ships to obtain more comprehensive insurance package to handle salvaging of shipwrecks.
• Tighter control on the transport of hazardous materials in passenger ships.
Sulpicio revenues
Citing documents submitted by Sulpicio Lines to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007, North Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talińo-Mendoza on Sunday said the company generated P5.74 billion in annual revenues in 2007.
Mendoza, a vice chair of the committee on legislative franchises, said the company’s audited financial statements and other regulatory filings showed its annual revenues went up by 57 percent from P3.66 billion in 2001 to P5.74 billion in 2007.
She added that Sulpicio Lines’ 2007 gross revenues of P5.74 billion was up P520 million or 10 percent from the P5.22 billion it generated in 2006. The company reported a “cash hoard” of P467.2 million at the end of 2007.
Mendoza attributed the surge in Sulpicio Lines’ annual revenues “mainly on account of rapid population growth (that is) a key driver of strong demand for domestic sea travel.”
