Philippines slammed over safety failures

Marcus Hand, Manila - Friday 10 October 2008

THE vice-chairman of the inquiry into the Princess of the Stars tragedy, Benjamin Mata, has blasted the Philippines government for successive failures to implement maritime safety recommendations. 

“Today we hold the world record for disasters at sea — it’s shameful,” Mr Mata told a meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in Manila. 

“Every time, we submit a report of findings and recommendations to the department of trade and commerce and then I think it is just thrown in the garbage. Then we have another accident.” 

Mr Mata believes that if recommendations from previous casualty investigations had been implemented the Princess of the Stars would never have sunk with the loss of over 700 lives. 

He noted that a past incident involving a small ferry in Luzon was very similar to the Princess of the Stars capsizing. 

“Yet when we submitted our findings on the previous incident [it was] totally disregarded. If that had been implemented we could have avoided the Princess of the Stars” he said. 

Mr Mata believes one of the main problems is that domestic owners have been allowed to import secondhand ro-ro vessels from Japan designed to operate on inland sea waters. 

The 24-year-old Princess of the Stars was just such as vessel, having been bought by Sulpicio Lines three years ago, and was proudly paraded as the pride of its fleet. 

“We have allowed the import of vessels unsuitable for and not designed to operate in our waters,” he stated. 

“These ro-ro vessels were designed to operate in inland seas; operating them in our waters is perilous. 

Our seas are open to the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea and we are battered by 25 typhoons a year.” 

Enforcement of the limited maritime safety rules and regulations the country remains a serious problem, according to Mr Mata. 

“The implementation of rules and regulations is thoroughly lackadaisical. [The country’s vessels] are now regarded as non-compliant by the International Maritime Organization,” he said. 

He further charged that these aging, imported vessels should be considered “garbage” as they contain asbestos, meaning they will be extremely costly to scrap. 

Sulpicio Lines has tried on a number of occasions to get the investigation into the Princess of the Stars called off. 

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