The Ces Drilon et al kidnapping has just been resolved (with their release that is, the whodunit is still the subject of an extended episode), now there’s the tragedy of Sulpicio Lines’ MV Princess of the Stars. The news cycle has begun to turn, as expected.

I read the news reports on the tragedy and can’t help but feel for the families of the victims. It must be horrible to be in their situation. The ship should never have sailed to begin with. Frank was a really bad typhoon. I was at home and the pounding rain and wind was incessant, I thought a roof would surely be blown off. How much more if you were out in sea being tossed by the waves?

To the families of the victims, I offer my prayers. Losing a loved one to old age or natural cause of death is already difficult and entails a grieving process. How much more if the loved one is lost due to this circumstance?

People who have survived major sea disasters in the Philippines are real to me. It is only now that I found out that Sulpicio also owned Don Juan!

In April 1980, M/V Don Juan, an interisland passenger vessel also owned by Sulpicio Lines bound for Bacolod from Manila carrying 890 passengers and 69 crew members, collided with oil tanker M/T Tacloban City and claimed more than 400 lives.

This particular sea tragedy hit home because it claimed the lives of people  from my home town. From stories, I know that some of the victims didn’t mean to take the ferry home. Since they were well-off, they could have afforded, and usually did, take the plane but all flights were fully booked.

Whole families perished, trapped in cabins, save for a member/s who didn’t take the trip with them. Those who lost their loved ones have not been the same ever since, even until now.

There was one survivor who I always saw in school growing up because she taught some subjects there. She was the only one who survived in her family. It was whispered about that she only got to safety because her dad hoisted her up one of those cabin windows and she was able to swim away from the ship before it sank.

In one of the ferry disasters from Iloilo to Mindanao a few years ago, my uncle (an in-law) says his brother, his wife and child survived when the boat capsized. They were in the water for a long time, floating, waiting, and mercifully they were rescued.

The tragedy here is that most families travel together. So if you have an accident like the recent Sulpicio Lines one, chances are, you are wiping out an entire family: father, mother, children and extended members. In light of this, and of the emotional damage that can be wreaked on the family of victims, the Coast Guard and the shipping lines should be more prudent when deciding whether a ship can sail during a storm. Passengers can’t leave the port even if they wanted to if there’s no ferry. It’s as simple as that.

For the shipping lines, it’s probably just about their profit margin and their bottom line. But then, there are lives at stake and that should take precedence. But that is only wishful thinking on my part.