M/B Kim Nirvana captain, 2 coast guards indicted

ORMOC CITY, Philippines  — The boat captain of the ill-fated MB Kim Nirvana-B and the two Philippine Coast Guard personnel who cleared it for sailing at noon of July 2, 2015, have been indicted for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide.

Respondents of the criminal case, to be tried at the Regional Trial Court, are boat captain Warren Oliverio, and CG personnel, SN2 Jonas Sabado and ASN Joseph Blanco II, with bail bond set at P10,000 each.

The boat owner, Juge Bong Zarco, and 17 crewmembers, who have been in detention since the day of the incident, however, were cleared of the complaints.

Acting assistant city prosecutor Erwin James Fabriga said the boat owner’s liability is civil in nature and that “the complainants will have to file a separate civil action to enforce the civil liability of the boat owner or they will have to await the conviction of the boat captain, if it so happens, to enforce the owner’s subsidiary liability.”

Fabriga, in his joint resolution resolving two separate complaints of murder and reckless imprudent resulting to multiple homicide — released last September 1 — stated that Oliverio and CG men “disregarded the rules.”

On the part of Oliverio, Fabriga said: “There is probable cause to warrant the belief that the boat captain failed to exercise the utmost diligence of a very cautious person when he proceeded with the voyage despite the fact that his boat was already overloaded with passengers, not to mention the more than 200 sacks of cement and assorted goods and construction materials that were being carried by the vessel, causing it to sit lower in the sea water, thus increasing the risk of being swamped by the waves due to the rough sea conditions at the time.”

On the two CG personnel, Fabriga said, “they should be called to account for allowing the vessel to proceed with the voyage despite the obvious overloading of passengers inside the MB Kim Nirvana-B. There was concurring negligence on their part when they failed to determine the exact number of passengers on board the vessel even as they claim to have conducted a headcount during the pre-departure inspection.”

Fabriga contended that if a headcount was actually conducted, “then why is it that the total number of passengers on board the vessel exceeded the maximum carrying capacity of 178 passengers?”

It turned out there were 220 passengers actually on board the MB Nirvana-B when it capsized, he said, basing his number of 158 survivors and 62 casualties. Fabriga concluded there was an excess of 42 passengers, which the CG — “if only they performed their duty — failed to notice and observe.”

Testimonies of survivors, in their complaint affidavits, also affirmed that the CG personnel did not do an actual head count before the ill-fated boat sailed off the Ormoc City port.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor held in abeyance resolving the complaint for reckless imprudence resulting to serious physical injuries, filed by eight complainants against the respondents.

The eight — Rosalia Salinas, Jennifer Pañares, Randy Salinas, May Aura Clarisse Sopa, Luz Lociano, Antonia Balane Wenceslao, Amalia Cabonegro Degoma, and Myrna Estor— have yet to submit medical certificates of their injuries to substantiate their complaints, added Fabriga.

To recall, the MB Kim Nirvana-B capsized just around 200 meters off the port, while on its way to Pilar in Camotes, Cebu. The official death toll has since risen to 63, after the complaint had been filed, when the hip portion of the missing child Angela dela Cruz was found floating on the waters near the city plaza, two weeks after the incident. Her mother and two others remain missing, though. (FREEMAN)