PB wants two shipping firms probed for ‘lack’ of insurance

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Board has called on the Maritime Industry Authority-7 to investigate the possible lack of an insurance coverage of the two vessels involved in the sea collision August 16 last year.

This after Cordova town Mayor Adelino Sitoy expressed suspicion that shipping companies 2GO Group Inc., owner of the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas, and Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. (formerly Sulpicio Lines), which owned MV Sulpicio Express Siete, may not have been covered by insurance, which he said is compulsory under the law.

The town has been claiming P127 million from the protection and indemnity insurance of the two shipping companies for the environmental damage Cordova suffered as a result of the oil spill followed the collision, which killed over a hundred passengers.

Sitoy had asked for the names of two shipping firms’ insurance companies but 2GO reportedly refused to divulge its insurer while Span Asia did not respond to letters the town sent.

In an approved resolution authored by Mayor Sitoy’s son, PB Member Arleigh Sitoy, addressed to MARINA-7 Director Nannette Villamor-Dinopol, the PB cited the need to such investigate the matter to prevent delay in the claiming process.

“Such painful delay does not at all mitigate or help in the recovery of the lost livelihood and destroyed marine life of the Municipality of Cordova,” PB Member Sitoy said.

Of the amount Cordova is claiming from both companies, P78.6 million is for the recovery of the town’s fisherfolk sector, P1.38 million for vendors, P5.1 million for livelihood projects, and P41.7 million for mangrove forests.

MARINA-7 earlier said a protection and indemnity policy is now optional for shipping companies after it issued a cease and desist order effective March 1, 2010 for its circulars that include the said policy.

But Mayor Sitoy said they would elevate the matter to the court so that the names of the insurance companies would be divulged.

He said it would be the two shipping companies that must bear the burden of compensating the town for the environmental damage it suffered if indeed 2GO and Pan Asia did not ensure their ships. (FREEMAN)