Red Cross all-weather ship arriving in July

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has acquired a military prototype vessel that could maximize the aid institution’s rescue and relief efforts.

PRC chairman Richard Gordon yesterday said the ship M/V Susitna will be delivered to the country from Alaska this July.

In a roundtable discussion with STAR editors and reporters, Gordon said the PRC bought the ship for $1.75 million, far from its original price of $80 million.

The PRC earlier said Matanuska-Susitna Borough (maker of the ship) has been trying to sell the vessel for about three years since plans to build a landing terminal outside of Anchorage fell through.

It later decided to sell the ship to the PRC after an agreement on the selling price.

The PRC added that the 195-foot ship will serve as PRC emergency units’ rapid transport and landing vessel, relief supply transport ship, hospital ship, medical facility deployment ship, sea rescue vessel, mass evacuation vessel, humanitarian logistics ship, mobile operations command post and humanitarian education and training ship.

“It would be manned only by six people as everything is computerized,” Gordon said.

“This ship can carry ten trucks of relief goods and we can have 120 people sitting comfortably there,” he said.

Gordon said it can also “evacuate a village of a thousand people.”

“It can land on the port, and where there is none, on the beach or shore,” Gordon said.

“We need it, since we are an archipelagic country,” Gordon said.

He said he plans to dock it first in Manila Bay, and eventually in the Visayas when help is needed.

Gordon said the PRC has entered into an agreement with the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), which would provide the crew for the ship.

He praised MAAP president and retired vice admiral Eduardo Santos for taking care of such provisions.

The PRC would provide allowance for the ship crew once it arrives in Manila.