MANILA, Philippines—In the wake of the multiple inquiries into the June 21 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, its owner, Sulpicio Lines, has so far emerged virtually unscathed. It has not been held to account for the disaster.

The inquiries both in Congress and by government bureaucratic authorities during the past two weeks have raked over the coals state agencies charged with ensuring public safety on maritime travel.

They have allowed Sulpicio Lines officials to get off lightly by focusing on public officials, instead of putting the shipping company in the hot seat. Sulpicio Lines has also demonstrated it has imposed its own law of the sea with the dangerous overtones of demolishing government regulatory authority on maritime safety.

While the inquiries were under way, taking the full glare of publicity, Sulpicio Lines mounted an aggressive campaign in the legal and legislative systems to shift the blame for the ferry disaster off Sibuyan Island.

The company’s wide range of culprits included God (for producing storms that sink ships) and the weather bureau and agencies responsible for stopping ships from heading recklessly head-on into typhoon paths (despite storm warnings).

This campaign was unleashed even though Sulpicio Lines had blood on its hands, with 800 passengers and crew still listed as missing, entombed in the capsized ferry, and with its hold carrying a cargo of toxic pesticide that threatens to poison marine life.

The lopsided focus on the accountability of public authorities has left an outraged public asking: The smoking gun is inside the sunken ship, consisting of entombed human corpses, why are inquiries not holding Sulpicio Lines primarily accountable for the sea carnage despite the evidence of lost human lives?

Probes to exculpate liner

Were the inquiries staged to exculpate Sulpicio Lines and to give the company a forum to look for scapegoats to demonstrate that government officials did not provide the shipowners, their captain, with information to allow their ship to steer clear of danger?

The hearings at the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) and the House committees on transport and oversight were biased for Sulpicio Lines and against the regulatory authorities in terms of giving them a forum to denounce public regulatory agencies.

Were the hearings held to whitewash Sulpicio Lines and give it a platform to mount a public opinion offensive on a wide front to divert focus from its own accountability?

In the congressional hearing, many citizens have been prompted to ask on whose behalf and for whose benefit their representatives in the House were asking questions. The fate of the victims apparently was the issue of least concern to members of Congress.
In the bureaucratic boards and legislative hearings, the queries were directed at highlighting procedural flaws on marine safety regulations for the traveling public. It seems the public had no friends in these hearings.

Public unprotected

In the hearings, the public appeared forlorn and unprotected while Sulpicio Lines seemed to have friends in strategic forums ready to bail the company out of trouble and to shield it from pressure to remove the toxic cargo, to pay financial liabilities to the drowned victims, to retrieve the corpses and to allow the dead a decent burial.

In its aggressive legal offensive, Sulpicio Lines filed a number of suits. In one, the Manila Regional Trial Court rejected the company’s petition for a temporary restraining order to stop the BMI inquiry. Sulpicio Lines claimed that the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) had sole jurisdiction to inquire into maritime disaster and added that the BMI was “biased.”

The company took advantage of the ambiguous overlap of jurisdictions of several government regulatory agencies overseeing the industry. However, the court gave the BMI the go-ahead to continue with its hearings.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez saw through the tactic of Sulpicio Lines to plaster the government with multiple suits.

He said the company was attempting to evade responsibility for the tragedy by filing, among other things, criminal charges against the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) for allegedly failing to inform the ferry of the approaching typhoon, and Del Monte Philippines, allegedly for not declaring the toxic pesticide cargo.

‘Squid tactics’

Both PAGASA and Del Monte have disputed these allegations. Gonzalez said suits by Sulpicio Lines were “squid tactics.”

PAGASA has presented evidence that it issued periodic weather warnings tracking the typhoon path. Evidence showed that Sulpicio Lines disregarded these warnings and did not exercise prudence by allowing its ferry to sail into the typhoon’s path, while other major shipping lines tied their ships at port.

Sulpicio Lines has also filed a P3-million civil damage suit against PAGASA for allegedly giving “inaccurate” weather reports on Typhoon “Frank” (international code name: Fengshen). It accused Pagasa of “gross negligence and incompetence” in predicting the typhoon’s path.

Despite the strong pressure of the shipping lobby in Cebu, MARINA is not lifting its order grounding all vessels of Sulpicio Lines until the agency completes its audit of seaworthiness of the entire fleet. The issue here is between passenger and cargo safety and the commercial interests of the company.

Next in hot seat

The House committees on transport and oversight resume their hearing on Thursday on the ferry sinking, promising to put Sulpicio Lines in the hot seat. The shift of focus was prompted by criticism that the shipping company had gotten off the hook in last week’s hearings.

Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentebella, chair of the transport committee, admitted that the grilling last week was focused on the liability of government regulatory agencies, allowing Sulpicio Lines to escape scrutiny. Thursday’s hearing seeks to restore balance in the inquiry.

The correction course also puts the credibility of the committees on the line. Let’s see if the committees could stop the lawyers of Sulpicio Lines from the war path of demolition of the government’s regulatory authority over shipping lines that have drowned more than 4,000 passengers during the past 28 years.