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SULPICIO
Lines Inc. said it will ask the Maritime Industry
Authority (Marina) to allow its 11 grounded
roll-on/roll-off passenger (Ropax) vessels to set sail
and ply their normal routes after the regulator had
completed its inspection and found that these were
seaworthy.
Arthur Lim, lawyer of Sulpicio Lines,
said the company would submit a petition before Marina
to allow the inspected vessels to resume operating, as
grounding the ships much longer would jeoparadize the
company’s revenues.
“We have a [draft] request to the Marina
to allow the vessels to resume sailing since they have
already been inspected and no violation was found,” Lim
told reporters on Friday at the sidelines of the hearing
Board of Marine Inquiry.
“We don’t know why Marina is holding
them [ships]. We have complete papers and documents that
Marina itself issued,” he said.
It has been a week since the government
grounded all the passenger vessels of Sulpicio after its
flagship MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon
at the height of Typhoon Frank on June 21. The
24-year-old vessel is the country’s biggest passenger
ship.
Marina Administrator Vicente Suazo Jr.
earlier said the grounding is a standard procedure
whenever a sea accident occurs.
He said inspection procedures may take
between two to three days, but Marina officials will be
the ones to decide if Sulpicio vessels would be allowed
to operate.
Sulpicio, however, refused to say the
extent of the loses it incurred for the grounding of its
ships.
Based on the company’s financial
statements, Sulpicio suffered a net loss of the P228.33
million in 2006, higher than 2005’s figure of P226.46
million.
Revenues in 2006 amounted to P5.21
billion, lower than the P5.23 billion in 2005.
Sulpicio was incorporated in Cebu in
February 1972. It has 11 remaining Ropax vessels and
eight freighters.
The company earlier said it has
indefinitely postponed its plan to acquire two more
vessels—one Ropax and one cargo ship—in the light of the
tragedy.
Meanwhile, a congressional inquiry into
the tragedy that struck MV Princess of the Stars has
been ordered by Speaker Prospero Nograles.
On Sunday Nograles announced that the
House transportation committee, headed by Lakas Rep.
Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, will conduct a
marathon inquiry into the tragedy, even as he cautioned
that the incident, the fourth passenger ship involving a
vessel owned by Sulpicio Lines, would not be the last of
the country’s maritime disasters. That is, if
shipping-vessel operators, maritime regulators and
law-enforcement agencies will be back to “business as
usual” soon after the issue has gone away.
In ordering the investigation, Nograles
said the government should now see to it that all those
responsible for the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy
would be punished for their negligence and outright
disregard for the safety of passengers.
“The House will not let this issue fade
away. That’s why I ordered the House transportation
committee, chaired by Kabalikat mg Malayang Pilipino
Rep. Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, to conduct an
investigation as soon as possible in marathon sessions
and to throw the book at those who appear to be
responsible, including the Department of Transportation
officials,” he added. With F. Marasigan |
