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SULPICIO
Lines Inc. (SLI), owner of the upturned MV Princess of
the Stars, on Monday insisted that the Board of Marine
Inquiry (BMI) that is investigating the June 21 sinking
is biased against the company.
Sulpicio
earlier filed a petition on July 7 questioning the
legality of the BMI investigation.
In the
hearing, the embattled shipping company presented lawyer
Arthur Lim as its “ordinary witness” before Branch 24 of
the Regional Trial Court in Manila.
During
cross examination, Assistant Solicitor General Arnold
Martines, who represents the BMI, asked Lim if he agreed
that a rule cannot repeal an existing law following
Lim’s claim that Philippine Merchant Marine Rules and
Regulations (PMMRR) issued by the Maritime Industry
Authority (Marina) in 1987 “expressly repealed the 1976
Coast Guard-issued PMMRR, which allegedly stripped the
BMI of jurisdiction on sea accidents several times.
At the
same time, Sulpicio announced that it assigned Titan
Salvage to recover the toxic chemicals and hydrocarbons
inside the upturned ferry.
Lawyer
Victoria Florido, SLI spokesman, said the salvage plan
will be released soon. The plan, Florido said, shall be
drafted in consultation with the Department of
Transportation and Communications.
Operations, she added, will start upon signing of the
contract with the salvage company.
During
the hearing at the court in Manila, Lim, who is
Sulpicio’s lawyer, kept answering: “If that is what you
think.”
Martines
then asked the court to make Lim answer with a simple
yes or no, which Lim eventually accepted. Martines also
claimed that Lim was insulting him during his cross
examination after the latter kept making side comments.
“I told
you a lawyer is not an ordinary witness,” presiding
Judge Eugenio Antonio told Martines.
“But
he’s an old lawyer, he should know,” Martines said in
response.
The
court hearing only lasted for less than an hour.
Aside
from BMI, the shipping company also filed charges
against Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration officials for the
agency’s alleged inaccurate weather bulletins and
tropical-cyclone warnings issued at the height of
Typhoon Frank and Del Monte Philippines for allegedly
not disclosing that endosulfan, that the ferry was
carrying during the incident, is toxic and a marine
pollutant.
It
hinted that it may also sue Marina for grounding the
company’s vessels allegedly without following proper
procedures.
Authorities, meanwhile, recovered 16 more bodies
believed to be among the missing passengers of MV
Princess of the Stars from the waters of Ticao Pass off
five Sorsogon towns.
Reports
reaching Camp Salvador Escudero Sr., the Sorsogon police
headquarters, on Monday said the 16 bodies were
recovered near the shorelines of Bulan, Castilla, Donsol,
Magallanes and Pilar, towns at the northeastern coast of
Ticao Pass that separates the province from Masbate.
Two of
the bodies were separately fished out by fishermen from
the Bulan municipal waters along barangays Inararan and
Namo early morning Sunday and one of them, a female,
still had with it a handbag containing P13,000 in cash.
No documents to identify the victims were found,
provincial police director Senior Supt. Henry Rañola
said.
In
Castilla, Rañola said three bodies were retrieved
separately by police and Army personnel from the waters
off barangays Buenavista, Quirapi and Tomalaytay, at
about 8 a.m. of the same day.
One of
the bodies was identified as that of Charito Balunan,
male, 26 of barangay Paril, San Isidro, Leyte, based on
identification cards recovered, while the two others, a
middle-aged male and a female bore no means of
identification, Rañola said.
On the
shoreline of nearby barangay Bantayan, Pilar, the
authorities found three more bodies, two of them bearing
no means to establish their identities, late afternoon
Sunday.
One of
them, a man still wearing a life jacket marked MV
Princess of the Stars, had a mobile phone inside the
pocket of his pants from where the Pilar police traced
his relatives in Cebu and informed them about the
recovery of his remains. The body was identified to be
that of a certain Jim Descarte, 25, Rañola said.
Two more
bodies were recovered Monday morning on the shorelines
of barangay San Antonio of the same town, he said.
In
Magallanes town, four still-unidentified bodies were
also recovered by the police on Sunday.
In
Donsol, two headless bodies both wearing Sulpicio Lines
life jackets were recovered separately from barangays
Sibago and Rawis, Sunday afternoon. One of the bodies
was identified to be that of Romulo Logronio of Biliran,
Leyte, as indicated by the residence certificate
recovered from the pocket of his pants.
The
other body was identified to be that of Jonathan Calayag
of Cainta, Rizal, Rañola said.
These
fresh recoveries of bodies from the municipal waters of
Sorsogon brought to 22 the number of victims retrieved
within a week in the area.
All the
bodies were immediately buried at local cemeteries, but
Rañola said they could be exhumed once claimed by
relatives or any interested party.
The
southwestern coastline of Sorsogon is located about 100
nautical miles southwest of the sea tragedy scene but it
is not surprising that bodies of the victims have been
reaching the province’s territorial waters because of
the prevailing southwesterly wind direction (habagat)
that leads the sea current into the area, Serafin
Lacdang, chief of the provincial fisheries office, said.
Meanwhile, Bayer CropScience Inc. (BSC) reiterated its
full cooperation in the investigation being conducted by
the BMI.
Among
the cargo aboard the overturned ferry are 55 cartons and
30 bags of ready-to-use finished products of BCS, which
include Antracol, Trap, Fuerza and Tamaron. These were
packed in heat-sealed waterproof aluminum bags,
heavy-duty coextruded multilayer bottles and plastic
bags with outer polypropylene bags, all within heavy
corrugated shipping cartons.
“Our
packaging system fulfills the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Code of Conduct
on distribution and safe use of pesticides and follows
stringent safety and environmental measures, ensuring
that the finished products are properly secured and
sealed,” explained Tess Cayton, technical consultant of
BCS told the BMI. “The small volume of BCS products in
the vessel biodegrade in a matter of days once in
contact with water and especially when exposed to
sunlight.” |
