Read Part 1: 30-minute pre-departure inspection of ship a ‘joke’

(Second of a series)

MANILA, Philippines—Retired Rear Adm. Benjamin Mata was pleased to see a video on safety measures that Sulpicio Lines had prepared for its passengers, but he became depressed when he saw that life jackets that had been banned years ago were still in use.

Mata, 77, a master mariner, said the contraptions were similar to those he saw in “Titanic”—the hit movie about the world’s largest steamship of its era that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in 1912, leaving 1,517 people dead.

The video that Mata watched during a hearing of the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) was the same one shown aboard Sulpicio Lines’ ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars before it left Manila for Cebu on Friday, June 20, at 8 p.m.

The 23,800-ton, seven-story Princess of the Stars encountered a raging typhoon at noon the following day and capsized. Except for 56 who survived, all the more than 860 people aboard the ferry perished or were missing.

“It’s standard procedure to show this film before departure,” Mata says.

But what caught Mata’s eye were the three types of life jackets that were shown on the video. He was shocked to see a life jacket that had been outlawed years ago.

“You can see these Titanic-like jackets that are a virtual hangman’s noose, or a death trap,” he says.

“These are the life jackets designed and provided for in the Titanic. So many passengers died there, in those life jackets that have an all-around buoyancy. When you wear it and you jump into the water, there is a tendency that if you are unconscious, your face will be under water,” Mata explains.

He says that this particular life jacket is one of those approved by “bleeding hearts” in the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), which, along with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), supervises the shipping industry.

A more modern, and expensive, version—with a larger balloon out front that allows the wearer to float face up—is used in other maritime countries. But the use of this modern life jacket hasn’t been made compulsory here after MARINA yielded to pleas from shipowners who said that it was not affordable, according to Mata.

Another master mariner, retired Commodore Amado Romillo, 77, says that the cheap life jackets comprised 50 percent of those in use by inter-island ferries.

Mata was vice chair and Romillo a member of the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) that looked into the June 21 sinking of the Princess of the Stars. The two mariners, who have wide international experience as sailors and shipping executives, resigned from the BMI in the midst of the inquiry after Sulpicio Lines accused them of prejudging the case.

“The attention span of the people in the corridors of power is limited to a child of 5 years of age,” Mata says. “It is a certainty that this grievous event will be forgotten within the next four weeks and everything will be back to normal, our leaders mouthing inanities and grabbing every opportunity to make them look good.”

Broken necks

Romillo explains that the orange-colored canvas jackets stuffed with Styrofoam strapped around the body can mean certain death for persons wearing them if they jump from a ship’s deck into the water at least 15 meters below.

“These people are not professional divers. So you jump feet first, the water will push the Styrofoam inside the canvas jacket violently upward. The Styrofoam is so hard that when it impacts on your jaw or the neck it could mean certain death,” Romillo says.

“The video did not instruct people how to jump,” Mata says. “There is a method of jumping and that instruction should have been included. It was not in the video.”

“They should have instructed the passengers how to wear the life jacket and in case you have to jump over the side this is how you do it, hold down the life jacket, like that,” Romillo says, demonstrating with his arms crossed over his chest and fists balled, clutching an imaginary object tightly.

Two PCG officers—Dr. Ted Esguerra and Lt. Cmdr. Inocencio Rosario Jr. who participated in the retrieval operations off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province last month—support the views of Romillo and Mata.

Bodies had old vests on

Esguerra, a PCG doctor and trainer who guided dive missions in the upturned ship, says the vests he saw on recovered bodies are the old boxy types that gain buoyancy from Styrofoam.

“It is filled with Styrofoam, not EVA foam which is harder to wear and tear. You could see through the slits [on the vest cloth] that it’s Styrofoam,” Esguerra says.

Unlike EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) foam, a tougher material also used as padding for sports gear, Styrofoam wears down more quickly as the simple act of rubbing can shed off its foam beads.

Esguerra also observes that the life vests are not the type that have headrests, a design that provides buoyancy support to the back of the head, easing face-up flotation.

He says the sunken ship’s vests are also the type that can cause neck injuries among ship passengers while jumping overboard at a certain height.

“When you hit the water, your body tends to go deeper down and the vest would stay afloat, it may hit your chin and cause neck injury. There’s a tendency for it to hit your head,” Esguerra says.

Rosario, commanding officer of the PCG’s BRP Pampanga, also recalls seeing these old and bulky orange vests on bodies his dive team also saw.

Look before you jump

“The other problem is, you jump in the water. You don’t look at what you will fall into. You’re hoping that the ship side is safe. But what do you have? Ladders,” Romillo says, referring to accommodation ladders welded to the side of the ferry.

“You’re hoping to land in the water, but you land in the accommodation ladder,” Romillo says. “You will hit steel.”

He says that in the Princess of the Stars disaster, so many people jumped overboard. “They were wearing life jackets, moments later, they’re dead.”

Romillo and Mata rue that both of them were unable to participate to the bitter end in the investigation and thus lost a chance to cry out their deep-seated misgivings about the state of the nation’s maritime industry.

Mata notes that Republic Act No. 9295, which was signed into law in May 2004, delegated the power to supervise the shipping industry to MARINA, which did not have the competent personnel to carry out its mandate and which then had to deputize the PCG to do the job.

The PCG, which has very meager resources, became the “convenient fall guy,” Mata says.

Floating coffins

That is why the country has virtual “floating coffins” destined for the scrap heap plying the country with a coastline that is one of the world’s longest, says Mata.

Mata has photographs of vessels operated by three of the nation’s largest shipping companies, including Sulpicio Lines, showing thick black smoke belching out of chimney stacks, indicating aging engines, and accommodation steel ladders welded to their sides.

“Those appendages are dangerous obstructions in the event of an abandon ship situation,” Mata says.

“In the midst of uncontrollable panic and pandemonium, people will jump overboard and instead of landing in the water will land on the steel ladders, causing injuries and death. The inflatable life rafts outfitted and installed on the life raft deck are in danger of crashing on these ladders thus rendering inutile life saving appliances,” he says.

“Who conceived of this idea and who authorized and approved this? We are the only country in the world that has installed these appendages.”

Mata says the video of Sulpicio Lines also did not give instructions to passengers on how to use the life rafts. There was testimony, he says, that the life rafts were lashed tightly and passengers had to untie them frantically.

Survivors say that the Princess of the Stars, battered by the strong winds of Typhoon “Frank” (international codename: Fengshen) and mountainous waves towering high above the ship, went under within 20 minutes.

Romillo says also the video did not indicate on which deck the inflatable life rafts were to be released into the water.

No food, water

The life rafts should carry standard provisions under international maritime rules.

“There was no food or water in the life raft, only a flashlight,” Philip Vasquez, 25, says in his testimony during the BMI hearing. Vasquez had grabbed hold of one life raft and miraculously survived with 27 others aboard after 22 hours in storm-tossed seas until they were swept to Mulanay town in Quezon province.

A Sulpicio Lines safety officer, Ernelson Morales, dismisses the claims of Romillo and Mata, saying that the company video shown during the hearing was prepared decades ago.

“We only used the video to show how to don the life jackets but those were not the life jackets we use,” Morales says. “Actually, our life jackets come from BP Mata,” he says, referring to a company Mata’s children own.

As for the life rafts, Morales says that these were supposed to be released easily by pushing a hydrostatic button. He also says that these rafts had “survival kits” but only the crew knew where they were because they were supposed to launch them during an emergency.

At least one crewman of Sulpicio Lines told the BMI that he never participated in a company emergency exercise because he was always on duty and didn’t know what to do when the ferry was being battered by strong winds and mountainous waves.

Morales also says that the accommodation ladders were approved by MARINA.

During the hearing, Morales told Mata: “Sir, I don’t think anybody would jump blindly. Of course, he will first check to see where he would be jumping. That’s instinct.”

MARINA Director Roberto Arceo says steel ladders are allowed to be welded on the sides of the ships because Philippine ports have no passenger terminal port with a landing bay. He says that in an emergency, there are other places where passengers can jump off from the ship.

Arceo also says the agency inspects all life jackets and makes sure these conform to international standards. He says those life jackets made of Styrofoam are banned. Life rafts are inspected periodically to make sure they are working and have provisions.

Culture of complacency

Mata says it is time the government enacts the Philippine Coast Guard bill that has been pending in Congress for the last 11 years. The law will give the PCG the necessary wherewithal to enforce maritime safety, he says.

It is also time to give teeth to the BMI, which is simply a fact-finding mechanism, and provide it with resources and the power to penalize infractions of maritime laws, Mata says.

“The pervasive frailty of our people believing that the goodness of God will protect them have lulled everyone into a culture of complacency,” he says.