In the aftermath of the MV Princess of the Stars maritime disaster, the blame culture once again reared its ugly head in the local maritime industry as accusing fingers flew all over the place. Sulpicio Lines even had the nerve to put the blame on PAG-ASA for its erroneous weather bulletin on typhoon Frank. Why? Does PAG-ASA own the typhoon that it really does not have control of? It’s a lot different in the case of Sulpicio Lines because it owns MV Princess of the Stars and it has full control of its ship whether it wants it to sail in bad weather or not. Officials of the company said that they left the discretion to sail with the captain. Yeah right! Tell me about it. If the captain did not sail because of bad weather, do you think the management would be very happy losing a couple of millions in that Manila-Cebu trip? Then, there’s the brewing issue between Sulpicio Lines and Del Monte over a chemical shipment. While all these make up for ‘newsworthy’ items in today’s media, these only obscure the real issue at hand.
Without meaning to make a parody of the tragedy, the real issue is getting to the bottom of the mess so that appropriate actions can be take n to minimize, if not prevent, future maritime disasters. How can we minimize sea tragedies if the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) only gives culpable parties mere slaps on the wrist? Did you know that Sulpicio Lines was not meted a fine for the MV Doña Paz - MT Vector collision on December 1987? Did you know that the owner of MT Vector was fine a meager P5,000 for the accident? Is that the worth of the more than 4,300 lives that perished in the world’s worst maritime disaster in the last 21 years? Did you also know that Sulpicio Lines was never fined by the BMI for the sinking of MV Princess of the Orient in September 1998?
As a seasoned marine engineer and having inspected a number of domestic passenger vessels in the past and discovered glaring deficiencies in the process, I strongly recommend that the BMI should start unmasking the mystery of Pier 12, if only to get to the bottom of the spate of maritime disasters that seems to have found a home in the turf of Sulpicio Lines. Consider this fact: MV Doña Paz, MV Princess of the Orient, and MV Princess of the Stars were actually the flag ships of Sulpicio Lines at the time they sank. A flag ship is usually the biggest in the fleet and something that the shipowner is proud of because it is the company’s ‘signature’ ship. Those ships of Sulpcio were big ones. MV Princess of the Stars was in fact, the biggest domestic passenger ferry in the Philippines, before it capsized off Sibuyan Island.
Doesn’t anybody from BMI or anybody who has the right shipping intellect find it mysterious when a 23,824-GRT ship can easily go into North Harbor and berth at Pier 12 without running aground? About eight years ago, Enrique Aboitiz Jr. was saying that it would be very difficult to berth a 15,000-GRT ship in North Harbor. Obviously, because the draft or the depth of the water will not allow bigger ships to go in, much less berthed alongside any of the piers. But how come Sulpicio Lines managed to do so with the significantly bigger MV Princess of the Stars some two years after Aboitiz made the pronouncement? In getting to the bottom of the issue, we also need to get to the bottom of the ship, where the ballast tanks are located. And here lies the answer to the mystery of Pier 12 and Sulpicio Lines’ spate of maritime disasters, whether the company’s management admit it or not. Their flag ships were not ballasted at all. Because if the ship’s ballast tanks were only pressed, that would have ensured stability and trim to those ill-fated vessels, Sulpicio Lines would not have been able to operate those vessels in North Harbor. The deeper draft of their big ships would only allow them to stay at the anchorage because going further to the pier would mean taking all the silt under North Harbor’s murky waters all the way to the berth. In fact, during the BMI probe following the sinking of MV Princess of the Orient in September 1998, the vessel’s chief mate admitted in his testimony about his lack of awareness about the ship’s ballast tanks or even how to press it.
Following the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy, I also joined a team from MARINA led by Administrator Vic Suazo to inspect the vessels of Sulpicio Lines in Cebu on June 27, 2008. I only boarded one ship and I noted a number of deficiencies already particularly with regards to lashings and cargo stowage. I did not bother inspecting the other ships because it would just be ‘same difference’ as I would say. BMI should consider this premise: ‘A non-ballasted ship combined with improper lashings and stowage of cargo, plus possible alteration of the ship make the perfect recipe for a maritime disaster.’ Now it’s time for the BMI to pursue it to the end and make the culpable parties pay the price of gross, albeit intentional, negligence.
by: NELSON P. RAMIREZ
Most Outstanding Marine Engineer Officer, PRC, 1996
Most Outstanding Student, ZNSAT, 1970
Outstanding Achiever of the Year, Province of Zamboanga del Norte, 2006
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