Delayed response

Last Sunday’s sea accident that stranded more than 200 passengers of Weesam 8 cast questions on the capability and the performance of the Cebu Coast Guard, which blamed the crew for failing to report their accident on time.

According to Cebu Coast Guard commander Romulo Punzalan, they got word about Weesam 8’s predicament from a Lapu-Lapu City resort’s personnel who received phone calls from some of the passengers who happen to be their guests.

Because of the delay in reporting their situation, the Cebu Coast Guard threatened sanctions against the crew and the management if they fail to adequately explain why they didn’t call for help immediately after realizing that their ship’s propeller got entangled in  seaweed and caused them to stop one kilometer off the Talisay City shoreline.

Among the passengers were several regional directors of national government agencies and Korean tourists. In their defense, the company said their crew tried to fix the problem before asking for help from the Coast Guard, who had by that time sent their vessel to the area.

The Coast Guard also pointed out that last Sunday’s incident was the second time that a vessel’s crew failed to call for assistance from their office. Last Sept. 4 MV Calbayog of Palacio Shipping Inc. was issued a maritime violation for failing to report to the Coast Guard about their malfunctioned engine, which delayed their arrival at the Cebu City port by four hours.

But is the ship’s crew entirely at fault? Alvin Santillana, chief of a Cebu City Anti-Disaster Council, said he tried to call the Coast Guard for assistance after a Weesam passenger informed him about the incident but he said he was passed around from one department to another.

In fact, Santillana claims, there was no Coast Guard nor Bantay Dagat crew  at the Talisay City shoreline where the stranded vessel can be spotted one kilometer away.  So how can the Coast Guard level all the blame on the Weesam 8 crew?

Would it have been a drain on their resources and personnel if they happen to include the Talisay City shoreline as part of their regular patrols (if they haven’t already) so they can see for themselves whether there were any stranded vessels that needed assistance?

A pro-active approach to monitoring the seas for stranded and damaged vessels would have spared those passengers the inconvenience of having to wait four hours before someone rescued them.

While the ship’s management assured assistance to the affected passengers, the Coast Guard should accept some  responsibility of having failed to detect the situation on time.

This would have been avoided if the Coast Guard, with the Bantay Dagat people, continued to monitor the seas at least near the shoreline and did not content themselves waiting in their air-conditioned offices for distress calls.