Sea tragedies: Negligence or Ignorance?
Accidents at sea are a common occurrence in Philippine waters, especially at the start of the monsoon season when storms frequently visit the country on a yearly basis without letup. However, this trend has not caused so much among owners of sea-going vessels to take a look as to the real causes of these sea tragedies that oftentimes claim innocent lives. Officials of the Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) admitted that some of the causes are traced to human errors or that the vessels being used to transport cargo and passengers are already unfit for transport use. With reconditioned engines and poor maintenance, the vessels could not cope with the batterings of big waves on stormy nights at sea. This is not to mention the lack of training for sea personnel manning these commercial sea-going vessels, which all the more aggravate the situation. Perhaps, this was what happened to the ill-fated m/v Dona Paz which sank, after it collided with a foreign oil tanker off