Court orders Sulpicio to pay victims P23M in damages after 10th year

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Seventeen days before the 10th death anniversary of their loved ones, four families from Cebu City finally found the relief that eluded them for so long. Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Generosa Labra on Monday ordered Sulpicio Lines Inc. to pay some P23 million in damages to the families, as she closed the case lodged against the company for the Sept. 18, 1998 sinking of the MV Princess of the Orient. Sulpicio Lines is also separately facing 13 suits so far for the June 21, 2008 sinking of the Princess of the Stars. Some 800 people—passengers and crew—went down with the ship off the coast of Romblon and less than 60 survived. “Having found that the immediate cause of the sinking of the mv Princess of the Orient, which resulted to the death of plaintiffs’ loved ones, was due to the negligence of its employee crew members, defendant Sulpicio Lines Inc. is therefore liable to plaintiffs for damages," she said. Labra’s ruling resolves the third and last suit filed in Cebu City against Sulpicio Lines for the Orient tragedy. It carries the biggest award levied against the shipping company for the incident that claimed the lives of an estimated 140 people. The decision, however, is not yet final and Sulpicio Lines is likely to appeal as it did in the first two complaints earlier resolved by Cebu regional trial courts. RTC Judges Estella Alma Singco and Ramon Codilla resolved the first two cases earlier this year and directed the firm to pay damages totaling P8.09 million. The case that Labra resolved, on the other hand, is a class suit filed jointly by Ricardo and Geraldine Ocampo, Manuel and Marietta Abelgas, Merce-lino and Felisa Bauya, Pedro and Beatriz Laurente, Manuel Cui, Praxedes Llenos, Narcisa Cacafranca and Virgilio Lano. Cui, Cacafranca, Lano and the Bauya amicably settled with Sulpicio while the case was still pending. Only the Ocampos, the Abelgases, Llenos and the Laurentes pushed through with trial. The total amount of the award reached P22,859,995.08 and covered moral and actual damages plus attorney’s fees. Lost relatives The Ocampos lost two minor children as a result of the incident. Geraldine and the two kids—Cathleen and Joemarie—took the voyage to Manila to attend a family reunion brought about by the arrival of her sister, Evangeline Abelgas from the United States. Complainants Manuel and Marietta Abelgas, on the other hand, are Geraldine’s parents. Marietta told the court that her other daughter, Aida Abelgas-Ching, was also on board the vessel together with Aida’s daughter Destine Ariel Mae, and Aida’s husband, Eduardo Ching. Of them, only Geraldine survived. The dead bodies of Joemarie and Aida were recovered but the rest remain missing. The Laurentes, for their part, lost their daughter—Dolores—to the incident. Dolores was in Manila to look for work abroad and took the ill-fated voyage to Cebu to celebrate her having been accepted. Llenos, on the other hand, lost her husband Sisenio Llenos Jr., a master mariner by profession and worked for Leone’s Navigation Co. Inc., and the World Marine Panama. Negligence In the 39-page decision released yesterday, Labra cited provisions of the Civil Code. She added that “the law requires common carriers to carry passengers safety using the utmost diligence of very cautious persons with due regards for all circumstances." “In the case at bar, defendant Sulpicio Lines Inc. failed to prove that the subject incident was not due to the negligence of its employee Capt. (Ersum) Mahilum," the ruling read. And in supporting the point of negligence, Labra cited the findings of the Coast Guard’s Special Board of Marine Inquiry (SBMI) and the report of a Maritime Industry Authority panel. Likewise considered were the testimonies of two survivors. Sulpicio Lines, on the other hand, presented seven defense witnesses and cited portions of the SBMI ruling. The SBMI ruling said the firm “prudently discharged its duty and obligation" to insure that its ship met fair safety standards. Errors However, the SBMI also ruled that the Orient did not have “all the necessary requirements needed to be classified as a seaworthy ship" and that it didn’t even announce the call to abandon ship when it sunk. Likewise, the SBMI investigation concluded that “the captain’s erroneous maneuvering the vessel minutes before it sunk at the vicinity of the Fortune Island was the immediate cause of the incident." Moreover, the SBMI ruling found that the captain and the crew did not orderly hand out lifejackets or caused the orderly launching of its life rafts. Mahilum, his officers and his engineers did not supervise the actual abandonment of the vessel. Even the radioman failed to send the call for help properly. Instead of using the internationally accepted communication network, which call could have been heard by all other vessels in the vicinity, he used a single side band communicator to radio the Sulpicio Lines headquarters. Marina The Marina panel, on the other hand, said the vessel was in a “tender and unseaworthy condition" when it left the Manila North Harbor and that “unsecured cargoes aggravated her unseaworthy condition." Likewise, the panel found that Capt. Mahilum had been “involved in several maritime incidents concerning the Orient. It cited how the Orient once touched bottom at the entrance of the North Harbor under Mahilum’s watch, how it sideswiped another container vessel and, subsequently, how it caught fire while berthed. “It appears that Sulpicio Lines did not consider those incidents serious enough as the same captain retained his job," it added. – Sun.Star Cebu