EDITORIAL - Maritime troubles

It is far easier for jeepney drivers to go on strike than for shipowners to do the same. Jeepney drivers lose far less and can plow right back into service once they lift their strike. Shipowners cannot. Not only do they lose more, skewed schedules and cargo backlogs can be a mess.

Therefore, when shipowners do decide to go on strike, or on a "shipping holiday" as they euphemistically call it, in the manner that bankers do, it must be for a really good reason, and only after all other options have been considered, and consequences weighed.

Shipowners have a beef against the Maritime Industry Authority, in particular against its administrator, Elena Bautista. It seems that instead of Marina being there for the industry as a good shepherd, shipowners feel the agency is acting like the big bad wolf.

One Marina policy that has aggrieved and agitated the shipowners so much is the one that calls for the immediate suspension of all operations of a shipping company whenever one of its ships figure in an accident.

In the aviation industry, the grounding of whole fleets of aircraft come not immediately after an accident but after a post-accident investigation has determined a cause, and which cause there is sufficient reason to believe might endanger aircraft of similar make or design.

But it appears Bautista had wanted to be more stringent to the point of exceeding reason. In the maritime industry, an accident can be due to a wide variety of causes, many of which may have nothing to do with the integrity of a shipping company to merit suspending its operations.

Only when, after a thorough and impartial investigation, can the operations of a shipping company be suspended if it is found that an accident was due to shortcomings in its operating policies or, worse, in the lack of integrity of their vessels.

Short of that, any immediate suspension is arbitrary, uncalled for, and therefore unfair and oppressive. And that is just one beef. No wonder the upheaval, and the swift action of the president in suspending all recently-issued Marina memos and circulars.

Suspending operations does not affect only a particular shipping company. It could wreak havoc on an already brittle economy. Maybe the intentions of Marina and Bautista are good. But it is always good to view the entire sea than just watch the frothy waves swirl around your toes.