GMA orders safety audit of shipping, passenger vessels

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo directed yesterday Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza to conduct a safety audit of all shipping and passenger vessels and check on the competence of government personnel in the wake of two ferry accidents in Manila Bay and off Batangas last week.

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Mrs. Arroyo also ordered the strengthening of maritime regulations to lessen accidents and other risks associated with sea travel.

“The President directed the Secretary of Transportation and Communications to require all the agencies like Marina (Maritime Industry Authority) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to conduct a safety audit of all shipping lines to find out, to determine the sea worthiness of all vessels,” Bello said.

The agencies would also check the competence of Marina and PCG personnel “because when these (accidents) happened, there was no storm and there was no overloading,” he said.

He said Mrs. Arroyo is set to sign the new Coast Guard law that would delineate the overlapping functions of the PCG, Marina and other agencies regulating the maritime industry.

‘Monitor firecracker makers’

The President also reminded concerned agencies and local authorities to improve monitoring and regulation of firecracker makers in the country following recent accidents that killed six people in Cebu and General Santos City in Mindanao.

Bello said Mrs. Arroyo was angered by reports on the lack of safety measures that led to the accidents.

Local governments and the Philippine National Police are among the agencies tasked to regulate the firecracker industry.

“They (authorities) should not wait for orders coming from the President,” Bello said. “They should always be on alert whenever the Christmas season approaches, and closely monitor the manufacture and sale of pyrotechnics.”

On alert

Malacañang ordered security forces to remain on heightened alert following an attempt to blow up a US commercial passenger aircraft and recent attacks of communist rebels on a remote police outpost as the New People’s Army marked its 41st anniversary the other day.

Bello said the AFP, PNP, and other law enforcement agencies were placed on alert after a Nigerian, suspected to have links to al-Qaeda, tried to bomb Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day.

Communist rebels also torched a public school and raided a police outpost in separate incidents last week.

The attacks came just a few days after President Arroyo declared a five-day staggered suspension of offensive military operations (SOMO) with the communist rebels during the holiday season.

The SOMO began from Dec. 24 to 26 and from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1. – Paolo Romero