The Philippines Supreme Court has reopened the case against an official of Sulpicio Lines over the 2008 sinking of its ferry Princess of the Stars. The Supreme Court reversed a Court of Appeals dismissal against Edgar Go, Sulpicio Lines’ first vice president and team leader of its crisis management committee. The court supports that the voyage should have been cancelled or discouraged due to the heavy weather.
The Supreme Court addressed the fact that despite the hazardous weather conditions, Edgar Go wasn’t able to monitor the movement of the vessel and instruct the captain to take shelter.
Go’s decision were presented as an inexcusable lack of precaution and not malicious.
Specifically, the ferry capsized on June 21, 2008, off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon, at the height of Typhoon Frank and marks the Philippines heavy legacy of maritime disasters.
Moreover, the Typhoon Frank, passed directly as a Category Storm 2. From the 849 people onboard, only 32 managed to survive, as 227 died and 592 were reported missing.
From those who managed to survive, four swam to nearby Sibuyan Island, passengers had been told to put on life jackets at 11:30am, and 15 minutes later, the captain gave the order to abandon ship.
According to the survivors, the ship began to list at around midday. The survivors witnessed many people jumping into the water, many not wearing life jackets. The ferry capsized at 1:00pm.
The Court found Sulpicio Lines and its captain liable for the tragedy.
Its final decision blamed human error, and ruled that the vessel’s missing and allegedly dead captain, Florencio Marimon, ‘miscalculated’ the risk of continuing the trip to Cebu, despite the stormy weather.
As stated in the report
The immediate cause of the capsizing of MV Princess of the Stars was the failure of the Master to exercise extraordinary diligence and good seamanship thereby committing an error of judgment that brought MV Princess of the Stars in harm’s way into the eye of Typhoon Frank … The shipping firm is found negligent for its failure to exercise its duty in ensuring that they transport passengers and cargo safely to (their) destination.
