Port owner denies holding ship in Zambales

SAN ANTONIO, ZAMBALES—The owner of the unfinished pier where a detained foreign vessel remained stuck denied the claims by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the contracted salvor that he was obstructing the salvage operation but maintained the ship should not be removed from his property.

Businessman Ferdinand Trinidad of port operator First Luzon Development Corp. said he was exploring legal options to keep the distressed vessel, Hyperline 988, within his property until he has been “reasonably assured of payment for damage.”

Trinidad issued the remarks on Aug. 25 following a municipal trial court’s (MTC) decision on Aug. 16 granting the petition filed by the PCG to remove the foreign vessel that ran aground in the shallow waters in San Felipe town.

The court’s action was based on an urgent motion filed on Aug. 6 by the PCG substation in San Felipe filed an urgent motion to authorize the salvage operation of Hyperline 988 stuck in Barangay Maloma’s waters.

In his decision, MTC Judge Vicente Fernandez Jr. affirmed that the PCG has “the power to enforce regulations in accordance with all relevant maritime, international law, conventions, treaties, or instrument and national laws for the promotion of safety of life and property at sea within the maritime jurisdiction of the Philippines.”

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But Trinidad said the move by the PCG to go to court just to remove a vessel was “a way of making it appear they (PCG personnel) are implementing a court order and not just their own order.”

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“I think the judge was not fully informed and so he had a misappreciation of the surrounding circumstances,” Trinidad told the Inquirer in a private chat message.

Trinidad said the PCG failed to disclose to the court that the vessel remained berthed in a private port, inflicting damage he pegged at P100 million due to the “[shipowner’s] negligence.”

“The [PCG] complaint made it appear that the vessel is on public land or waters and that the parties involved are just the vessel owner, Hyperline and the PCG,” Trinidad lamented.

According to him, if the PCG had disclosed everything to the court, “the judge would have most likely asked us to comment, which could result [in] a denial of their [motion].”

Agreement

Trinidad said the owner of Hyperline 988 had already agreed to allow the vessel to remain in Barangay Maloma until the damage it caused to the unfinished pier was paid for.

“What really is the reason why the CG is hell-bent on removing the vessel—an environmental hazard? Once the ship is emptied of its fuel and oil, there’s no more threat to the environment. So why not just do that?” he asked.

Trinidad added he could not understand how the vessel could be moved out of Maloma when “it’s already cut in half, which means it’s no longer seaworthy.”

Commander Euphraim Jayson Diciano, chief of the PCG station in Zambales, reiterated in a phone interview on Aug. 25 that their move to go to court was due to the pier owner’s “hampering of the salvage operation.”

Permission

“We have all records blow-by-blow on what is happening on Hyperline. We are asking his (Trinidad’s) permission out of respect but if he still insists on what he believes, we can fight with him in court,” Diciano said.

READ: PCG allows removal of detained foreign vessel after it runs aground in Zambales

He said workers from FES Challenger Salvage and Builders, which was hired to do the emergency salvage operation on the vessel, had a hard time entering the unfinished pier where it ran aground.

In several letters obtained by the Inquirer, First Luzon questioned the PCG’s decision to remove the vessel and requested to stop the salvage operation, saying that retaining the ship on the pier would be “crucial” to the investigation being done by authorities in connection with the reason why it ran aground.

Delayed?

First Luzon also insisted that the issues involving the payment for the damage on the pier and the insurance policies had to be resolved first.

“There were a lot of delays because of First Luzon, [and it was worsened by] the typhoon and southwest monsoon since it came to the point when it was no longer safe to tow the vessel,” said Diciano.

On July 24, the vessel was partially submerged due to strong waves caused by the southwest monsoon and Supertyphoon “Carina” (international name: Gaemi). The permit for the emergency salvage operation also expired on the same day.

But Trinidad insisted that his company did not cause any delay and never barred anyone from entering and repairing the ship.

The vessel has been kept in the town’s waters since May 16. It was initially held in the nearby waters off Barangay Sindol after the PCG found 21 deficiencies in the vessel’s documentation.

On May 29, the vessel ran aground at the unfinished pier while on its way to Barangay Bolitoc in Sta. Cruz town, also in Zambales, to change anchorage.

The seven Chinese crew members, who had been staying in a local resort and would alternately guard the vessel, are facing violations of immigration laws lodged by the PCG before the Zambales Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on May 24. The prosecutor’s office has yet to set the hearing for the complaint.

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