The spectre of sea mishaps

The country has its share of tragic sea mishaps. Often this involves passengers boats. And the worst-ever incident was that of Doña Paz. That remains unresolved. And many of the victims are still waiting for the final work on indemnification for their loved ones' loss.

Yesterday, SuperFerry 2 towed into the BREDCO port in Bacolod SuperFerry 9 which had developed purportedly a steering problem near Balbagon Island in northeastern Panay.

Luckily, based on the reports from Juan Rojo, assistant vice president for corporate communication, none of the 1,300 passengers of the SuperFerry had been injured. Of the number 391 were supposed to disembark in Bacolod. Another SuperFerry reportedly brought those bound for Iligan and Ozamis from Manila to their destinations.

Just late last week, another inter-island vessel bound for Leyte reportedly sank in Cebu with 17,000 sacks of Vietnam rice. That mishap is still under investigation by the Philippine Coast Guard.

Barely a year ago, another SuperFerry lost several passengers because of sabotage when an Abu Sayyaf member reportedly planted a bomb on board one of its cabins. The suspect had been collared. The outcome of the case against him remains unknown.

Actually, nothing can match sea travel. It is comfortable. One can get badly-needed rest in between a lot of hustles.

As a matter of fact, Paeng Golez, the planters' representative to the Sugar Board, told me early this week that he often takes the boat in going to and from Manila. A little bit "taxing", perhaps, but still, from my own point of view, very relaxing.

But the series of sea mishaps also has put sea travel in jeopardy. Actually, there has been considerable improvement in safety measures and procedures adopted by local shipping companies. And definitely it is much cheaper than an airplane flight to and from destinations elsewhere in the country. But what is most important is for maritime authorities to make sure that inter-island vessels are properly equipped with the necessary "safety nets." What is condemnable was the behavior of the SuperFerry crew in that Corregidor mishap who reportedly abandoned the passengers to their own devices as they took off on their own to save their lives.

This reminds me yesterday of a modern day hero - lawyer Napoleon Mijares. He was from Aklan, a personal friend. And he was a legal counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I learned later from survivors of the Don Juan mishap that "Polen," as we called him, took off his safety belt and gave it to an aging lady who managed to save herself. Mijares, however, lost his life. But this was the man who offered his own to save another. But there are only a handful of Mijareses among our midst. What we need are more of this type of Filipinos who are ready to offer their own lives for the other.

Atty. Mijares died as he had lived. His spent his life as a lawyer providing assistance to many Aklanons, usually for free, when they could not afford to hire the services of a lawyer.

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"We had to submit our application for a permit to operate a port to the Philippine Ports Authority. And we had to submit further our plans on how to operate a port. Again the PPA. And it was the PPA that granted us the permit to construct and operate the BREDCO port. Aside from that, we had to get the national government nod to lease for 25 years the area around the port, including the BREDCO basin," that was the explanation from BREDCO president, lawyer Simplicio Palanca. He was answering Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia's claim that the city government owns BREDCO port. With the issues between the city government and the BREDCO officials, I supposed that is going to require a court ruling. Palanca, however, said he was willing to have an impartial group to arbitrate the standoff with the city government.

A court suit could last interminably. Not only that, it could sabotage the city's investment program. For, as MBCCI chairman Roberto Montelibano pointed out the signal that could be given to the business sector is that of "government in business." We hope that sanity pervades the present negotiation. Otherwise, that could signal a drastic dip in outside and well as domestic investments.

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Local sugar producers have started to get worried. The latest report indicate that a looming free trade provision allowing Mexico to export unlimited amounts of sugar to the United States could force changes to the US sugar program. This could even lead to an overhaul of the US Farm Bill. But the American Sugar Alliance is girding up for the fight. Thus, if the farm bill, which is up for review this year is changed because of the need for more Mexican sugar, this could result in drastic changes in the US Sugar quota.

Meanwhile, Washington State has passed a biofuels mandate which stipulate that 2 percent of all gasoline in the state should contain ethanol and two percent of all diesel to contain biodiesel by December 2008.*

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