EDITORIAL – Slow reforms

This is supposed to be the peak season for travel, but people don’t want to board a plane for fear of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Those who need to move from island to island in this archipelago may take their chances on maritime transportation. But that is not without risks either. A wharf in Davao has been bombed. The inter-island vessels themselves are a cause for worry. Deadly accidents have plagued the maritime industry for many years, but reforms have been slow.

One reason for this is that those res-ponsible for maritime tragedies are rarely made to pay for the loss of lives and property. The case of the ferry Maria Carmela, owned by the Batangas-based Montenegro Shipping Lines, is a good example. Yesterday marked a year since the ferry caught fire as it approached the Batangas port at the end of an overnight journey from Masbate. Of the 346 manifested passengers and crew on board, 44 were killed and 29 remain unaccounted for.

Relatives of the dead and missing as well as survivors complain that to this day no criminal, civil or administrative case has been filed against anyone in connection with the fire, which reportedly started in the vessel’s cargo of copra. The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) said that a year after the tragedy, the Department of Transportation and Communications still has to resolve the case. Montenegro Shipping’s insurance firm also has not compensated any of the survivors or the relatives of the fatalities.

Marina authorities have blacklisted the insurance firm. Despite the blacklisting, however, victims of the fire may have a long wait ahead for compensation and justice. How many people have been punished in this country for a maritime disaster? The faults of the system have long been known: overloading, improperly stowed cargo, poor maintenance of aging ships, ill-trained crew. Passengers are not properly manifested. The result: at least one major maritime disaster almost every year – from fires, sinking or ship collision. And no immediate reforms are in sight.