EDITORIAL — Another sea tragedy

One of those things that makes the Philippine infamous all over the world has happened again; yes, we are talking about a disaster involving a passenger ship.

This time it happened off the coast of Coron, Palawan, after the MV June Aster caught fire last Wednesday, September 9, heading to Coron after departing from the Port of Batangas around 8:13 P.M. the previous day.

As of this writing, the death toll from the disaster is now 35, with 54 people still missing. Social media boards are flooded with inquiries about those whose whereabouts are still unknown.

The incident is still under investigation, but according to initial reports, survivors on the ship heard a loud explosion before it caught fire.

It’s still too early to determine whom to hold responsible for this incident. But it must be clearly understood that heads have to roll for this; as much as we want those 54 still missing found alive, their chances of turning up alive don’t look too good.

So here we are again with another disaster at sea, the last one being the sinking of the MV Trisha Kerstin 3 off Basilan just last February 14, in which 31 people died.

Why do incidents like these keep happening? Are many of our ships floating coffins? Are many of our crew undertrained to handle situations like these? Do our travelers take safety on board for granted?

We submit that accidents aren’t 100% preventable, but if sea tragedies happen more often than we want them to then we must still be remiss in some aspects of safety at sea, if not many.

Like we said earlier, sea travel will always be popular among those who cannot afford other means of transport. And if nothing is done to make this mode of transport safer that means every ship that leaves a port in our country is always in danger of becoming the next tragedy at sea.