Who’s the sacred cow in M/V Starlite Atlantic sea tragedy?

In our radio program last week, Executive Session, aired over radio station DZRH, my co-hosts Am­bassador Teddy Boy Locsin, Jr., Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz, lawyer Dodo Dulay, social media expert Paolo Capino and I, discussed a tragic in­cident which happened a day after Christmas last year.

We were referring to the M/V Starlite Atlantic sea tragedy.

The M/V starlite Atlantic is a roll-on, roll-off ship (Ro-Ro) built in 1975. The ship, which sank at around 11 in the morning at the height of typhoon Nina had 33 people on board but only 14 were rescued while a lone fatali­ty identified as 21-year-old Lyka Banayal was recorded.

According to the docu­ments furnished this writer, 18 persons remain missing, namely Susan Lacastales, Mark Manalo, Kenneth Jones Banguiso, Elberto Dela Cruz, Gerald Dennis Sab, Adolfo Manalo, Ronmark Hidal­go, Mark Anthony Gomez, Jaspher Andozo, Ronnyl Gargar, Joeven Cabrera, No­canor Calvez, Mochael Von­cent Vargas, Lester Vincent Quillan, Oscar Torregoza, Gaudencio Forcado and Jas­per Aguilar.

Three months after the tragedy, the 18 persons are presumed dead. The docu­ments given us also revealed that out of the 18 persons, 11 were student-cadets taking their on-the-job training on-board the ill-fated ship.

After the initial news re­ports about the tragedy last December, not much had been reported in media.

We were informed that there was a deliberate effort to “suppress” the news about the incident because it might affect the public image of a newly-appointed cabinet of­ficial of the Duterte Admin­istration.

This official reportedly owns Starlite Ferries which in turn owns M/V Starlite At­lantic.

A source in Congress told us that even the Com­mittee on Transportation of the House of Representatives chaired by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, was hesi­tant to investigate the trage­dy.

Why? It is an open-secret in the House that the owner of Starlite Ferries is a sacred cow because he is a known protege of House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez.

The sacred cow is also reportedly the best friend for (BFF) life of former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and held several government positions during the admin­istration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a staunch ally of the in­cumbent President.

The alleged shipown­er’s close relationship with Speaker Alvarez, the Arroyo couple and the rest of the PDP-Laban is reportedly his biggest asset here. We will see if the relationship will able to help get him off the hook and escape liability in relation to the M/V Starlite Atlantic tragedy.

Then again, the Christ­mas tragedy is not an isolated incident. It was just a repeat of previous terrible sinkings in the country’s storm tossed seas. In 2008, MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Rom­blon amid the onslaught of Typhoon Frank, with only 48 survivors out of its 862 pas­sengers.

We also recall the dead­liest maritime disaster in Philippine history, the sink­ing of the MV Doña Paz on Dec. 20, 1987 near Oriental Mindoro, where more than 4,300 passengers died.

What is the government doing to prevent this from happening again?

The Department of Transportation ( DOTr) and its attached agencies, MARI­NA, Philippine Ports Author­ity and the Philippine Coast Guard, should ensure that all rules and regulations related to maritime safety should be implemented or enforced.

The main problem really is that most shipping compa­nies disregard rules on mari­time and passenger safety be­cause they can easily get away with it .Corruption in the abovementioned agencies is rampant. This has to stop.

The DOTr should also compel shipping compa­nies to abandon the use of refurbished ships, and in­stead, begin using brand-new vessels.

Industry experts we asked say that most of the vessels that serve the coun­try’s maritime routes are re­furbished ships from Japan with an average age of 30 to 40 years. According to them, these second hand refurbished vessels are $2-3 million cheaper than a brand new one.

They say most of these ships were designed for Ja­pan’s calmer waters and are not suited to the choppy seas of the Philippine archipelago.

Lastly, we hope it is not true, but talks are rife in the industry that the 11 stu­dent-cadets were abandoned by the more experienced crewmembers of M/V Starlite Atlantic at the height of the typhoon.

Many are asking: Were proper procedures followed when the crew members abandoned the ship? What assistance has government or the owners of the ill-fated ship extended to the families of the student-cadets and others who perished in the sea tragedy?

These and many oth­er relevant questions per­taining to passenger safety should be investigated by the DOTr or Congress.

The investigators should do their job quickly so that this matter can be concluded swiftly to give justice to those who per­ished.

Let the chips fall where they may.

If government is serious in protecting our citizens and winning the war on corruption, there should be no sacred cows.