EDITORIAL - Marina must be watching too much TV

Do you know what the suspension of the entire fleet of Trans-Asia Shipping looks like following the sinking of one of its ships, the Asia-Malaysia? Somebody at the Maritime Industry Authority must be watching too much television.

The popular TV series Air Crash Investigation deals with another mode of transport. But a sweeping act of authority often taken by federal aviation officials — grounding entire fleets or types of aircraft — can prove irresistibly seductive to regulators of other transport modes.

It is easy to say that concern for safety lies at the root of any decision to ground an entire fleet. But the circumstances in the airline industry cannot be more different from those in its maritime counterpart.

For example, a faulty bolt that can cause an airplane to crash will not necessarily cause a ship to sink. Therefore, grounding an entire fleet of the same type of aircraft with the faulty bolt is not an act that should similarly be taken against a fleet of similarly deficient ships.

Besides, in the case of Trans-Asia, the cause of the sinking has yet to be officially determined, thus making the Marina action look rather precipitate. And if pillars of the shipping industry are now protesting the decision as unwise, the Marina only has itself to blame.

Speaking for three shipping organizations, Chester Cokaliong, CEO/COO of rival Cokaliong Shipping Lines whose ship Filipinas Cebu was among the first to rescue passengers of the stricken vessel, branded the order unfair, especially since no ship re-inspections have been undertaken.

By all indications, top officials of the Marina could only be trying to make themselves look good at the expense of shipping industry players and the riding public. For there is no other way to see an action undertaken without first considering both basis and consequences.

An agency that undertakes a particular action simply because it is the fashionable thing to do (a fleet of buses in Manila was recently grounded on account of one driver driving his bus of an elevated ramp) is not doing the public any good.

If Marina truly wants to ensure maritime safety, resorting to knee-jerk reactions is not the way to do it. If it is truly serious about inspections, it should inspect ships before they sail, not inspect them after they sink.