THE MOUNTAINEER

Lack of coordination
EDISON L. BADDAL

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Around this time, some 600 corpses have yet to be recovered from the hull of the MV Princess of the Stars after it capsized off Sibuyan Island, Romblon on June 21. In this latest sea mishap involving the Sulpicio Lines, the 14th for the shipping company since 1986, an estimated 860 passengers and crewmen drowned and only a handful managed to survive after so much struggle.

Although the number of dead in the latest mishap is comparatively lower with the fatalities of the M/V Dona Paz which sank on December 21,1987, the number of survivors of the two mishaps is almost equal. Meanwhile, while the Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker then, the MV Princess collided with the eye of typhoon Frank as it sailed directly into the route of the storm.

On that fateful day, the captain of the ill-fated ship may not have been aware that he was encountering the eye of the storm. This could be so or else he must have taken the ship to shelter in order to steer clear of the dangerous center of the storm that was cutting right into the ship’s route. However, it may be possible that everything may have happened so fast that the captain became disoriented and turbid when the ship began to list while being battered by turbulent, choppy waves.

Due to this, he may have been deprived of adequate opportunity to maneuver the ship to a safer ground. During that particular instance, his years of steering a ship went down the drain and transformed into a blur between time and space. Overtime, the stormy waves caused the ship to keel over. If anything, his incidental imprudence in sailing head-on against the eye of the storm despite adverse information that may been posted on the ship’s radar, was no less suicidal. It is possible however, that he could have spotted the deviating course of the storm but was deprived of material time to exercise discretion.

As of this time, many reasons are being put forward for the mishap. The tragedy caused concerned agencies like the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Authority and PAGASA, to point accusing fingers against each other. Rubbing salt to injury to the lapses of the agencies was the seeming lack of concern of the beleaguered shipping line authorities for the safety of its passengers.

Such indifference, let alone unconscionable greed, complacency and cavalier attitude by the former, may have factored quite hugely in the mishap. This is shown by the fact that the management gave the green light for the ship to sail despite the raging, stormy weather.

On closer look, though, the Philippine Coast Guard shares a big part of the blame. In the first place, it should not have given clearance for the ship to sail even if the weather bulletin from PAG-ASA indicated a deceivingly safe route for the passenger ship. The PCG, as the agency charged with implementing maritime safety procedures, should have tracked down the dangerous deviation of the path of the storm within a day or two.

This should been its look-out as storms have the propensity to stray out of its path even after PAG-ASA hoisted storm signal no. 2 over Romblon, from which the ship sailed from, at 4:45 pm of June 20. The agency has the capacity to do this as it is equipped with the Beaufort Wind Scale, an instrument used in measuring wind velocity and which provides data for the possible deviation in the direction of the storm.

The instrument could also estimate the degree of turbulence of the sea surface as a result of wind velocity along its path so it could pinpoint the most turbulent spots at sea as a result of the fluctuating movement of the wind vis-à-vis its velocity. Failing to maximize the instrument, the PCG consequently failed to alert the Philippine Port Authority and pier authorities not to allow the ship to sail in the Marinduque-Romblon area where the storm was dangerously changing course and moving right smack into the ship’s route after the ship set sail at 8 p.m.

What made matters worse was that the weather bureau only updated its weather bulletin at 10:45 p.m. at which time the ill-fated ship was already navigating the route to Cebu. At that time, the ship was in the middle of the sea beyond contact from the PCG even from high frequency radio.

Unfortunately, the weather bureau only issues updated weather bulletin every six hours as result of its partially automated system unlike advanced countries which have fully automated system that enables them to deliver weather bulletins every three hours.

Had its system been fully automated, it could have issued a weather bulletin which upped the signal of the storm to number 3 along the route of the ship at around 7:45 pm and could have certainly prevented the ship to sail in its scheduled 8:00 pm trip.

It is thus that the failure of the agencies to coordinate their actions at the most critical and indispensable period prior to the tragedy, was the most deciding factor between life and death for the tragic ship. From the looks of it, everything seemed to have converged for the tragic incident to occur given the interplay of human failure actuated by greed, recklessness, imprudence and the lapses of the maritime agencies.

These factors joined to cause the latest human tragedy at sea. Succinctly put, it simply smacks of a turbid human system that got haywire in the midst of a raging storm. Hence, the series of morbid events seemed to have been guided by a supernatural script in which the captain was directed to steer his ship into a rendezvous with death itself.

It should be recalled that the late Fernando Poe Jr. batted for the upgrading and modernization of the equipment and facilities of the PAGASA when he was campaigning for the presidency in 2004. Back then, people were vexed at the several instances that the weather bureau issued wrong weather predictions.
Being the only non-intellectual candidate whose only ace was his popularity, he was not taken seriously then when he advocated for the above. At this juncture, his stand on the issue can no longer be ignored in the light of flawed equipment of PAGASA which contributed to the occurrence of the tragedy.

It is believed that if the equipment of PAGASA was fully automated, not only would it have been able to forestall the trip of the ship but could have also foreseen the changing course of the typhoon. On the other hand, the failure of PAG-ASA to purchase Doppler radars to enable it to track an oncoming storm after its budget was increased consecutively from 2005 to 2006 by Congress is a big question mark.

On hindsight, the tragedy exposed the gross incompetence of the Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Ports Authority in handling maritime safety procedures. It also bared the unworthiness of the antiquated equipment of PAG-ASA which has seen better days so that it sometimes issue flawed weather situation updates at the most urgent period.

This is another case of bureaucratic flaw which was manifested as a consequence of a tragic incident. Nevertheless, it is about time that maritime systems and procedures should be totally reviewed and maritime policies should be placed into proper perspectives. This is a necessity given the fact that the country is archipelagic. And whether this tragic incident is an act of God, as what Sulpicio Lines is putting up and harping on as a defense, is of no moment.

Right now, the sacrifice of the 800 hundred souls who perished in the mishap was uncalled for and for which they never deserved in the first place. Although it maybe partly an act of God, still it goes without saying that negligence factored greatly in the mishap. It is time to consider the seaworthiness of Sulpicio’s ships for the series of mishaps that involved its ships for the last two decades. It is high time that it be called to account for such accidents before another accident will claim precious lives. This is to honor the needless sacrifice of the victims in the mishap and as a testament that they did not die in vain.