Raising the Stars

The Philippine government and the Sulpicio Lines have decided to 'refloat' the sunken MV Princess of the Stars. The say, this would help in retrieving the hundreds of bodies still trapped inside the vessel, as well as easing the retrieval of the toxic cargo inside the ship. Vice President Noli De Castro says, this would probably take a month before the ship is refloated.

This seems an amazing, yet dangerous task. Amazing, because it's probably one of the first in the world for a doomed passenger ship to be refloated again. It would take really big vessels and equipment for this to happen. But there are also risks since no one knows the exact spot where the toxic endosulfan is located.

As of press time, more than 700 passengers and crew are still unaccounted for.

Fallen Stars

The sinking of MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of Sibuyan Island in Romblon over the weekend is the latest ferry disaster in the Philippines. As of press time, only 32 have been rescued and over 800 passengers and crew are still unaccounted for.

Sulpicio Lines, owner of the vessel, blames Typhoon Frank (international name Fengshen) and not engine failure as the cause of the accident. The ship, which is considered the biggest and even one of the most luxurious ships in the country, set sail from Manila to Cebu on June 21. Typhoon Signal 1 was raised. A distress signal was sent when they were in the vicinity of Romblon-Masbate. The ship went down the next day. The question now is, despite warnings of the onslaught of typhoon, why did the shipping company, as well as the Philippine Coast Guard, allowed the ship to sail. Other shipping firms like Negros Navigation and Superferry halted their ships to sail that day. And many passengers from the 2 shipping firms transferred to MV Princess of the Stars since its trip was not cancelled.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo was furious upon hearing the news during her visit to the United States. She instructed an all-out effort to rescue the 800 people feared trapped inside the ship.

This is not the first maritime disaster of the Sulpicio Lines.
This list contains 3 of the worst ferry accidents in the Philippines.

- The world's worst ferry disaster was the collision of MV Dona Paz and MT Vector at the Mindoro area in December 20, 1987. MV Dona Paz was overcrowded when it hit the oil tanker MT Vector, which ignited a fire burning the 2 vessels instantly. An estimated 4,341 people died.

- The next year, 1988, MV Dona Paz's sister ship MV Dona Marilyn sank off the coast of Leyte killing at least 250 to 300 people.

- MV Princess of the Orient, one of the biggest passenger vessels in the country, sank during a storm off the coast of Batangas in September 18, 1998. Of the almost 400 people on board, 150 died.