Victims of sinking ship get P1.38M in damages
ILOILO CITY—An Iloilo court has granted a total of P1.38 million in damages to victims of a passenger ship that sank off Cebu 12 years ago.
In a 36-page decision received by the complainants on June 3, the Iloilo City Regional Trial Court Branch 28 granted the damages to 13 survivors and the families of four fatalities in the sinking of the MV Asia South Korea.
Judge Loida Diestro-Maputol ordered Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc. and 15 company officers and crew named as defendants to pay each of the 13 survivors P45,000 in damages and lawyer’s fees.
The court also directed the defendants to pay the families of Dyna dela Cruz, Maria Nenel Montecastro, Paul Vicent Sy and Nancy Guarnes from P188,000 to P215,000 in death indemnification, damages and for litigation costs.
The complainants were then students of Western Visayas College of Science and Technology in Iloilo City who went on a field trip in Cebu City, according to their legal counsel Hector Teodosio.
But the passenger vessel sank 18.5 kilometers off Bantayan Island in Cebu around 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1999, on its way to Iloilo City.
Fifty-eight passengers died and 699 other passengers and crew survived.
Teodosio filed a motion for reconsideration on June 4 asking the court to grant the damages originally sought by the complainants.
“This is a just a slap in the wrist for shipping lines found liable for sea mishaps. Disasters like this continue to happen because of the light sanctions and penalties,” Teodosio told the Inquirer.
The complainants had asked for a total of P380 million in indemnification and damages, lawyers’ fees and litigation costs.
Teodosio said in his appeal that the families of those who died, some of whom were graduating students, and the survivors deserved more because it was proven that the shipping company and crew of the vessel were liable for gross negligence.
In the decision, Judge Maputol said Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc. “failed to prove observance of extraordinary diligence” in ensuring the safety of the passengers.
Maputol cited in her decision testimonies of the ship’s crew that the departure of the vessel in Cebu on Dec. 22, 1999, was delayed because of overloading of passengers and that the crew failed to effectively assist the passengers when the ship was sinking.
“The court is led to the inevitable conclusion that there was gross negligence,” the judge said in her decision.
The shipping company said in its defense that the vessel hit a hard object that led to its sinking.
It insisted that the sinking was caused by a “fortuitous event or force majeure (unforeseen and uncontrollable event).”
“The officers and crew members lost no time in assisting the passengers by distributing life jackets, ringing the general alarm; and took all steps and emergency measures for the passengers’ safety and well-being,” the company said in its defense which was cited in the court decision.
But the complainants testified that the crew failed to assist the passengers and that they were among those who jumped overboard.
