Almost a week after the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of Romblon and Masbate, only about a hundred bodies have been found so far... out of the over 800 passengers and crew. One week has passed, over 700 still missing... 700 families grieving, not knowing what to do, what to expect.
I was deeply saddened over the news of this tragedy. I don't have any relatives on board, but I feel sad everytime I find out just 5 to 10 bodies are recovered daily. Just a few weeks ago, my officemates and I would joke it's the end of the world, because of the earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruption in China, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Myanmar, US and many other countries. Now, it's the Philippines' turn.
Until now, I cannot comprehend the fact the ship sailed amid the storm. And that MV Princess of the Stars is actually one of the country's biggest and most luxurious passenger vessels. I guess you could consider it the Phillipine Titanic. And now it's gone, together with the lives it used to carry.
And now, the news that the sunken ship was carrying tons of pesticide made me more frustrated. Under the law, passenger vessels can't carry pesticides or chemicals, but here, it seems that law was violated. And the pesticide inside Princess of the Stars is not your ordinary chemical but a highly dangerous one... it is even banned in other countries. This makes rescue operations even harder. The community near the sunken vessel is also affected since now they can't eat fish anymore.
This tragedy, for me, is one of the worst in the Philippine maritime industry. A big ship sank due to the storm... and after a week, only a tenth of the passengers survived and even more remain missing. Plus there is the pesticide... preventing divers to retrieve the bodies for now.
I can't imagine what the relatives might be feeling right now, but I sure am angry and sad of the situation. Hope more survivors will be found soon and if there aint any... then I hope the bodies would be retrieved for a better resting place and I guess for closure on the part of the families. I also hope this would be the last tragedy and that lawmakers can make stricter laws on such maritime cases.
Let us continue praying.
ADVERTORIAL (click the link on the right):
Perspectives of a Bum- read a brief story about the sinking of Princess of the Stars, plus the other vessels of Sulpicio Lines that also sank.
Pasaporte- some light story on an unplanned trip to Tagaytay last year.
Friday, June 27, 2008
the Lowest Star
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Well for me its better to be more realistic.
ReplyDeleteTo the author of this blog,I appreciate your effort in this topic.
ReplyDeleteIt could give you more facts.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the ship was carrying pesticide until I read your entry. That's so terrible because now it's a humanitarian crisis as well as an environmental one. I am so saddened by the loss of life, and am still more saddened that our oceans suffer so at the hands of humans. I just read an article recently about the great garbage patch in the pacific ocean roughly the size of Texas. 3.5 million tons of trash swirling in the ocean-- most of it plastic that can't be broken down. You can read about it here (not that you need to read more bad news) http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/.
ReplyDeletemiss red,
ReplyDeletethanks for your comment. true, now the problem is not only the loss of lives, but also a possible destruction of environemnt. The ship is currently "floating" on top of corals.
-will visit ur site :-)
hey jek... i was shocked when i heard of this news. nainis ako coz the shipping line is blaming the coastguard for giving them the go signal but hello, common sense would tell them that their passengers' lives would be at risk. grrr... Philippines should be stricter in implementing its laws and people shouldn't keep passing the blame on others if they really know that part of it is their fault.
ReplyDeletehey ros...
ReplyDeletehell yeah! kakainis lang, kasi events like this could have easily been prevented...
but then again, what can we do now? let's just pray for a miracle na marami pa buhay. as of now still 700 still missing pa rin..
grbeh nga kse in class.. napagusapan nmin na kung kasalanan nga ng sulpicio and yes, obviously they have a fault in this.. wla rin tayo magawa kse mga ilang percent din sa shipping and transpo industry ang sulpicio dba? hndi natin sila pwde i-close etc.. hai. ewan grR! negligence tlga!!
ReplyDelete