OF OIL DEPOTS AND SEA DISASTERS

The Philippine Star
06/29/09

Two events of late have resurfaced, one about a tragedy that happened a year ago and another “a tragedy in waiting.” These events are also interesting testimony to the complicated web that our justice system weaves. One is “justice delayed” while the other is “justice reversed.”

The first one is a case that endeavors, albeit a little too late, to soothe the anguish of victims’ next of kin arising from a tragedy; the other is an uprising stemming from a legislative reversal that seemingly attempts to mock public welfare.

The Sulpicio saga

As a sort of “first anniversary gift,” the justice department recently announced that it found probable cause to file a case against the ship captain of the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars, and a top officer of the owner shipping company Sulpicio Lines.

A case has been ordered filed in the Manila Regional Trial Court for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide against Capt. Florencio Marimon, who has steered the ship and is reported dead along with more than 800 victims of the sunk ship, and Sulpicio Lines Inc. executive Edgar Go.

The directive comes ten months after the five-member Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) released its findings pinning the blame of the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars on the Cebu-based shipping company and its missing captain, and almost one year after relatives of kin through the Public Attorneys Office have filed a slew of cases against Sulpicio in the Manila Regional Trial Court and the DOJ.

The M/V Princess of the Stars listed and went under on June 20, 2008 off the coast of Romblon’s Sibuyan Island after being battered by strong winds and heavy rains brought about by Typhoon “Frank.” Only 57 of the ship’s more than 800 passengers survived.

A long agonizing process

The case recently filed with the court brings little relief to those who lost their relatives in the tragic sea mishap. The course of justice will be long, as family of victims involved in past maritime disasters of the same shipping firm are now familiar with.

In the tragedy that is M/V Dona Paz, which killed more than 4,000 people, in December 1987, cases had been filed for damages against Sulpicio but most are still in various stages of resolution. Very few have been able to progress their respective cases to the final stage.

Thirty-four passengers aboard M/V Dona Marilyn, which capsized during its journey from Manila to Leyte in October, 1988, or less than a year after the Doña Paz tragedy, filed a complaint with the Regional Trial Court in Palo, Leyte for damages against Sulpicio for loss of personal effects, including cash, and physical injuries.

The RTC ordered in favor of the respondents, but the appeals process ran up to the Supreme Court. A final decision was penned by the high tribunal only on January 25, 1999 , or more than a decade after the incident that claimed close to 80 more lives.

When M/V Princess of the Orient sunk near Fortune Island in Batangas in 1998, one of the passengers filed charges of multiple homicide through reckless imprudence against Sulpicio's owners before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

A decision by the Court of Appeals was handed down in 2005, or seven years after, affirming the award of damages to the respondent in the case. In the course of the hearings, the respondent had died, and the heirs have substituted.

On the side of legislation, much-needed reforms such as the Coast Guard bill, the Maritime Code, and the creation of the National Transportation Safety Board as well as other proposals of past Board of Marine Inquiries remain pending.

How many more deaths and how much more property is lost before much-needed reforms are adopted? How long before justice is served in the name of all victims who died?

Oil depots - local government’s political toy

The other interesting case today is the Supreme Court decision ordering the removal of the oil depots from Pandacan which was “reversed” by the new city administration.

In a move which many labeled as “justice reversed,” Mayor Alfredo Lim approved a resolution rezoning Pandacan allowing the continued stay of the depots where petroleum products are stored by several oil companies including the Big Three, identified as Pilipinas Shell, Chevron (formerly Caltex) and Petron.

Atienza’s gameplan

In 2001, the Manila City Council passed an ordinance requiring the oil companies in Pandacan to relocate within six months, an impossibly short time for such a major endeavor that could affect major supply lines throughout the country.

To give the oil companies reasonable time to plan and implement the removal of the depots, then Mayor Joselito Atienza agreed to an interim arrangement whereby the oil companies will gradually phase down operations and create a so-called safety buffer zone between the communities and the oil depots to temporarily allay the fears of the residents.

To hasten the ordinance’s full implementation, a people’s organization filed a writ of mandamus seeking for the execution of the original ordinance. In 2007, the Supreme Court decided on the issue and asked the City of Manila to enforce the 2001 ordinance, only to learn eventually through the oil companies’ respective responses that the city council had passed a new ordinance in 2006 extending the stay of the oil deports until 2014.

New city administration, new game

The bigger surprise, however, came this year when the new city administration declared a new game plan by approving a new ordinance repealing the very basic spirit behind the two previous ordinances: reversing the earlier rezoning orders, and therefore allowing the oil companies to stay in Pandacan. In this new game, the oil companies got the upper hand.

Flip-flopping game not yet over

But the game is not yet over. This curious flip-flopping of the city government is the subject of a mass movement led by the Church. Signatures have been gathered for a formal repeal of the 2009 ordinance, as well as legal proceedings with the Supreme Court to declare the new measure as null and void. The new ordinance, according to the citizen movement, violates people’s right to a healthy and safe environment.

Of course, a new city administration come 2010 may again mean a brand new ballgame. By then, the oil companies have once again pushed back their inevitable departure from Pandacan. Unless fate can no longer wait.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, SalcedoVillage, 1227 MakatiCity. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.