Jun 23, 2008, 8:07 GMT
Manila - When reports broke on the weekend that a passenger ferry carrying more than 800 people was stranded in stormy seas in the central Philippines, many in the country expected the worst.
Residents look at the sunken ferry MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of San Fernando town in Sibuyan Island of Romblon province, 300 kilometres south of Manila, Philippines on 22 June 2008. EPA/STR
After all, the eventual sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars was just the latest in a string of accidents at sea in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.
While ferries are the main form of inter-island transportation in the Philippines, the country has a woeful maritime safety record with an average of more than 200 accidents every year, according to government records.
The Philippines was the site of the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster when the ferry MV Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker days before Christmas in 1987, killing more than 4,300 people.
The Dona Paz was owned by Sulpicio Lines, the same shipping company that operated the Princess of the Stars, which capsized Saturday off Sibuyan Island, 300 kilometres south of Manila.
Past sea accidents have been blamed on overloaded or ageing ferries, poor maintenance, lack of warning about bad weather and even incompetence of a ship's crew even though the country is a top source of seafarers around the world.
Maritime authorities have also been accused of laxity in implementing safety rules and regulations with some allegedly receiving bribes from shipping companies.
A study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government development agency, noted in 2007 that aside from human error and problems related to vessels, insufficient navigational aids and lack of navigational marks were also a major cause of accidents in the Philippines.
It added that while the Philippines has a coastline longer than the United States, there were fewer than 500 working lighthouses and lighted buoys to help ships navigate through the country's complicated navigational routes.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was fuming over the latest accident, which occurred as she was in the United States for an official visit.
In a conference call Sunday, Arroyo scolded Coast Guard officials for allowing the Princess of the Stars to leave port in Manila Friday evening when there was already a typhoon warning.
She rejected explanations by the Coast Guard that large ships can be allowed to sail even during bad weather.
'No vessel shall sail except to take shelter if a public storm signal warning is hoisted in the point of origin, the route and the point of destination,' she said, quoting from maritime safety guidelines.
'So it's not true what you are saying that there are no absolute prohibitions,' she said. 'There are.'
Arroyo ordered a review of Coast Guard guidelines to also ensure that vessels are not allowed to leave port if there is a possibility that they would hit bad weather.
'Pending a review of Philippine Coast Guard protocols, no vessel sails if it would pass a possible typhoon path,' she added.
Prior to the sinking of the Princess of the Stars, the last major maritime accident in the Philippines was in 2004 when a bomb believed to have been planted by al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants exploded aboard a ferry near Manila Bay. The explosion ignited a fire that killed 116 people.
In April 2002, a fire also broke out on an inter-island ferry in the central Philippines, killing at least 23. More than 90 were injured, and 13 went missing.
In December 1999, an overloaded MV Asia South Korea sank in the central Philippines, killing at least 51 people, including seven Nepalese students. More than 700 were rescued.
In September 1998, the Princess of the Orient, also owned by Sulpicio Lines, tilted in choppy seas near Batangas province, south of Manila, leaving 70 dead and 80 missing.
In October 1988, another Sulpicio Lines vessel, Dona Marilyn, sank during a typhoon, killing 250 people.
The Maritime Industry Authority has already convened a marine board inquiry to look into the latest accident while government officials have vowed to impose tougher sanctions against those responsible for the tragedy.
But as past experiences show, such investigations and warnings often do not lead to safer seas in the Philippines.
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