December 10, 2011

The Philippines on Antediluvian Crossroads?! - Episode Four

Looking back to government's usual fading enthusiasm and short attention span during the past decades, corrective or preventive measures to avoid the repeat of disasters due to man-made or natural causes have not been rigorously pursued. A concrete example is the MV Dona Paz ferry sinking on December 20, 1987, which according to Maritime Disasters Blog can be considered the deadliest ferry disaster and the worst peace-time maritime disaster in history. As narrated by said Blog: "The Dona Paz, a passenger ferry, was en route from Catbalogan City, on Samar Island, Philippines, to Manila when, while it was in the Tablas Strait, between the islands of Mindoro and Tablas, it collided with a small oil tanker, the Vector, which was carrying 8,800 barrels of petroleum products.


The Vector's cargo ignited and caused a fire that rapidly spread onto the Dona Paz, which sank within minutes. Two of the 13 crew members aboard the Vector survived but all 58 crew of the Dona Paz died. The official death toll on the ferry is 1,565 although some reports claim that the overcrowded and that the true death toll at least 4,341. The ships would put the death toll at 4,375 although admitting that only 1,568 were on the manifest (still more than the licensed maximum of 1,518). The 21 (or 24) survivors from the ferry had to swim as there was no time to launch lifeboats.  An inquiry later revealed that the crew of the Vector was underqualified and that the boat's license had expired."

As the saying goes: "History repeats itself!"  M.V. Cebu City (Philippines) - On 2 December 1994, the ferry sank in Manila Bay after colliding with a Singaporean freighter, the Kota Suria. The accident claimed 140 lives. (Reference: Wikipedia) As always, the government failed to strictly impose pertinent rules and regulations to avoid such accidents on the high seas.  With such historical infirmities, it's incumbent upon the citizenry to strongly prod or bamboozle the government in attending on climate change problems with extreme urgency.

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