The recent findings of the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) into the Aug. 16, 2013 collision of two ships off Lawis Ledge in Talisay City invite a weak comparison to the April 16 maritime tragedy in South Korea.
At last 300 people, mostly high school students, died in the sinking of the MV Sewol.
The incident drew such widespread outrage that the South Korea government broke up its Coast Guard, which arrived late at the scene of the disaster, and arrested the captain and crew on murder charges.
The vessel’s owner was charged with murder. He fled and a nationwide manhunt resulted in the discovery of what was believed to be his remains. A prime minister also resigned and South Korean president Park Geun-hye indirectly apologized for the incident.
The swift and decisive action taken by the South Korean government, their readiness to take responsibility make the Cebu collision a sad contrast.
One can’t find many similarities in the two maritime cases.
While there were lives lost in both tragedies at sea, the oil spill that resulted from the Cebu collision had long-term damage in mangroves and marine resources of neighboring Cordova town, whose fisherfolk still have to fully recover from the aquatic pollution.
The South Korean government did not take a year to find out what went wrong, or what the ship captain should or shoudn’t have done.
A year after the collision off Lawis Ledge, neither of the two ships in the Cebu case will admit to any fault or liability for the aquatic damage.
The BMI findings unveiled a laundry list of errors and negligent acts committed by the crews of 2GO and Sulpicio Express Siete .
Among them was the basic failure to communicate, the refusal of either ship to give way as they headed toward each other and the absence or lack of qualified lookouts who would have spotted the vessels from afar and warned the captain to veer off.
While the South Korean government broke apart its Coast Guard and one of its officials resigned, and arrests were made of the captain and crew, it’s business as usual here in the country.
Captains of the two vessels are protected by management from prosecution lest they blabber more than they should. Company lawyers of both camps are busy contesting the findings on appeal.
It will take years to prosecute the cases. The passage of time favors the shipping companies who count on families of victims to simply give up.
Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy and organized fisherfolk of the town are doing the unexpected. They started their first day of court hearings today for multi-million-peso class suits against both shipping firms.
They need the stamina to hold the commercial shipping lines accountable for their errors, something government maritime agencies have been unable to do.
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