The Superferry 9 Tragedy

the deep blue sea on a calm day, by orange tulip

early this month i was flirting with the idea of going to cebu unannounced, by taking the boat as i have reluctantly done four years back, for the love of a friend who is like a mother to me, but due to my unforgetable experince with the sulpicio's "princess of the universe" i was contemplating to take the arguably better shipping line and take any superferry vessel that goes to cebu.

ill-fated "princess of the stars" sank at the height of the typhoon "frank" in june of last year. i was thinking that the worse typhoons have passed through this country and i am looking forward to taking pictures of sunset in the middle of the sea, alone, undisturbed. i was even thinking of waking up very early the next morning for a sunrise photo. i have a long time friend whom i met at the mall in cebu city the last time i went there by boat and flew back to manila by plane and im wondering how he looks like four years after.

all was almost set, i have scheduled my weekend get way to be the third week of september and i am short of buying the ticket which i heard is on promo thus, i can probably get good deals both in the shipping and the airline.

yesterday's headline was a huge surprise and its just a year and two months after the "princess of the stars" sank and a couple of weeks when the documentary about the "m/v dona paz" with more than four thousand lives lost was shown on television. i was content reading the news online but this time i grabbed newspapers and read and reread the news accounts, and today that of the survivors.

in sharp contrast to the "princess of the stars" where help was practically nil during their most difficult time, despite of the lives lost and the trauma that happened to the passengers of "superferry 9" i am quite content on how the passengers were treated, and the crew were reportedly the last to abandon the ship. aboitiz shipping was swift to release its statement and in some way, the rescued passengers were taken cared of. although its quite sad to hear that the death toll was 9, compared to close to 900 lost lives in the "princess of the star" last year. accordingly, distress call was five hours prior to the sinking of the ship and rescue was quite soon thus, having a huge number of survivors.

it is quite disturbing to read today's newspaper accounts from passengers that there was not enough life saver, reminiscent of the "titanic" minus the icebergs. and there was only nine hundred passengers on board! how come that there were no sufficient life savers? if this is true then its a very sad news about the arguably best shipping company in this country.

some passenger accounts say there was a loud thud from the cargo prior to its tilting to one side. there were other possible reasons and it is imperative, i reckon that the authorities would "get to the bottom of this".

i have also read that an inquiry has been formed, which is habitually done everytime a ship has sank. today i have read that all the ships of the aboitiz has been "grounded" although those in the middle voyage was allowed to continue to their travel to manila which is just logical. and i am wondering what happened to the results of the inquiries from the past sinking of the ships by shipping authorities.

were there any review or revision of maritime policies? did these inquiries found any policy gaps and learned something and try to resolved them and in all efforts, "ill-fated sinking" of ships would not happen again and the lives lost would not turn to mere statistics.

more than a year ago, i have argued that the sinking was not an "act of God"http://reckonsofspring.blogspot.com/2008/06/greed-and-princess-of-stars-tragedy.html. i am now a busy person who cannot spend time arguing that this latest sinking, that of "superferry 9" is an "act of man" but i will definitely wait for the results of the "inquiry".

meantime, i have cancelled my plans of riding a passenger boat to cebu, palawan or even iloilo and general santos city. i will be content to watch the clouds via my favourite airline, the next time i decide to embark on a journey and can afford to do so.