No, it isn't enough for the owners of Sulpicio Lines to say in defense that shipping is the only livelihood they have, which is why they shouldn't be stopped from pursuing what they think it is that they are best at doing—shipping the lives of passengers to their rightful destinations. To Cebu or, for some horrendous reason, to heaven or hell. I reckon they are best at doing the latter, which is to screw thousands of lives for quite a number of times. Even the least sane person would have to say that the sea disasters in earlier years are no less than criminal acts out of negligence. No, those weren't accidents. One sea mishap is one too many. Four and perhaps more? Well, that truly should wrench your guts to summon all the best lawyers and liars in this country to aid you in your legal defense.
It's an afflicting thought that the shipping company hasn't learned its lessons from the past, although one can fairly denounce this by saying that they too have improved the quality of the ships that they own. What with their efforts to modernize what were once floating coffins. They want to put icing on the cake, or cake on the icing, by claiming that the shipping company has done its part of safeguarding their boats and, hopefully, of safeguarding the lives of their passengers in the end. But, alas, things have gone from bad to worse, and worse to worst.
The ironic part there is that even with all the combined efforts of the company to supposedly put luster on their name by putting luster on their ships, still it seems that they have more forks in the road ahead of them. Technology hasn't spared them and the dead passengers from the wrath of Frank and the wrath of the company's own doing. Unless, of course, we all put a stop to this madness. Which should be the call of the day and in the coming days, at the least. Unless we stop Go's shipping company, God or Allah or Bathala forbid, there might be more lessons for them to learn ahead, lessons that come in the form of sunken ships and useless deaths.
At the most, we should all the more demand for justice on this one, not only because Sulpicio Lines has done the people so much injustice then and now, so many lives wasted that stood before us and them like ghastly reminders that strike the veins of every sane and sensible human being. But more than that, we should all the more demand for justice today precisely because the past years have been equally cruel. The name of the shipping company has grown synonymous to the word disaster in every sense of the word.
Jail the criminal, or criminals, to put it simply. Stop the negligence by stopping the negligent.
I don't see why the Go family should continue with their business, monkey or shipping or whatever way people call it. In the past couple of days, I've seen how they've shared their part in addressing the tragedy of the Princess of the Stars, which weighs far less than the tragedy of the lives of the people. They were hesitant to refloat the sunken ship out of business reasons, which is that the insurance of the ship literally hanged in the balance of whether or not the company should decide to refloat the Princess long before the insurance company gives its own assessment of the ship's condition firsthand. Which, of course, Sulpicio Lines did not do. They decided not to refloat the ship for insurance reasons, a phrase too subtle for its substitute term financial reasons. At its best, the company could only go far enough to secure themselves from the monetary crisis they would have to face. At its worst, the company could very well resist the literal and figurative stench exuded by the rotten bodies floating aimlessly within the ship's belly.
What about the P200,000 that they promised to give the families of the victims as part of their insurance? Well, that might bode well with the claimants, assuming of course that they receive the financial benefit, or consolation. But to say that a few hundred thousand pesos is quite enough to cover the dirt and grime of the company is not quite sensible enough. The last time I checked, human life is still priceless. Or it should truly be priceless. You have a human eye, you know suffering and injustice whenever you see one, perhaps even before you do so, and you're called upon to hold the sanctity of life as something far more precious than paychecks. You have a human eye, you know life is priceless whenever you see how money can't console bereaved souls, or even before you do so, and you're called upon to defend life with life itself, or more than that, to defend life with death itself.
But you have an evil capitalist's eye, none of the sights of various shapes and sizes of gore can give you a lesson of humility and of humanity, and for humility and for humanity.
The wanton disregard for innocent lives is tempting enough to incarcerate those who dream of perpetuating the nightmare that they have casted down on this country for eternity, or for the rest of their lives. That wanton disregard is all the more tempting when one company tries to extinguish their moral obligations by acting out as if their monetary dole outs serve as their tickets to liberty from all the obligations that stare them in the face. I do recall one thing. Before the news came out, the news that Sulpicio Lines is willing and ready to pay the relatives of the victims a sum of money, the company were silent, as if resting in silent mode badly needing a recharge. They were speechless, or were nowhere to be found at the height of the angst and anger of the relatives of the victims who flocked to their offices. They had the seemingly perfect excuse that they were busy gathering information from underneath before they came out in public.
But it wasn't a perfect excuse. In the first place, there should be no excuse. There should have been no excuse, not even the wrath of typhoon Frank. Any way you look at it, you don't blame the weather for the sea tragedy. The storm, unpredictable as its nature is, sees no mercy in any thing that is brave enough, or foolish enough, to stand in its path. Not even a 23,000 ton floating metal can put the typhoon in a state of pause, like what you do with suspense movies at the pressing of the remote button. You know there's a storm ahead, you don't come-up with a wise decision by plunging straight into it. On the contrary, that's utter folly.
When the news first broke, the Go family should have immediately raced first to the press and raised their position on the tragedy which, of course, is to claim responsibility first and last. It's their ship for crying out loud. The captain is their captain for crying out loud. The passengers are their passengers for crying out loud. And then all they gave was silence when all hell broke loose? Hell, they could've even hinted at a faint sign of civility by showing themselves up in public when the public is calling upon them, or is demanding for their shadows to confront the people, or before the public went berserk by demanding for their heads to pop out of nowhere. Least of it all, the company could've simply risen from the rubble by announcing that they are now doing something, which is to gather information, instead of doing nothing, which is to sit things out while the rest of the people burn from the fire and ire of the tragedy.
It's about time to actually imprison those responsible in this tragedy. One death is one too many. One accident is one too many. Four times and more make it no longer an accident. It makes it look like a crime. It makes it a crime.
And it's about time to stop Go. It's about time to stop Sulpicio Lines from committing more "accidents" in the future. Jail the criminal, or criminals, to put it simply. Stop the negligence by stopping the negligent.
It's an afflicting thought that the shipping company hasn't learned its lessons from the past, although one can fairly denounce this by saying that they too have improved the quality of the ships that they own. What with their efforts to modernize what were once floating coffins. They want to put icing on the cake, or cake on the icing, by claiming that the shipping company has done its part of safeguarding their boats and, hopefully, of safeguarding the lives of their passengers in the end. But, alas, things have gone from bad to worse, and worse to worst.
The ironic part there is that even with all the combined efforts of the company to supposedly put luster on their name by putting luster on their ships, still it seems that they have more forks in the road ahead of them. Technology hasn't spared them and the dead passengers from the wrath of Frank and the wrath of the company's own doing. Unless, of course, we all put a stop to this madness. Which should be the call of the day and in the coming days, at the least. Unless we stop Go's shipping company, God or Allah or Bathala forbid, there might be more lessons for them to learn ahead, lessons that come in the form of sunken ships and useless deaths.
At the most, we should all the more demand for justice on this one, not only because Sulpicio Lines has done the people so much injustice then and now, so many lives wasted that stood before us and them like ghastly reminders that strike the veins of every sane and sensible human being. But more than that, we should all the more demand for justice today precisely because the past years have been equally cruel. The name of the shipping company has grown synonymous to the word disaster in every sense of the word.
Jail the criminal, or criminals, to put it simply. Stop the negligence by stopping the negligent.
I don't see why the Go family should continue with their business, monkey or shipping or whatever way people call it. In the past couple of days, I've seen how they've shared their part in addressing the tragedy of the Princess of the Stars, which weighs far less than the tragedy of the lives of the people. They were hesitant to refloat the sunken ship out of business reasons, which is that the insurance of the ship literally hanged in the balance of whether or not the company should decide to refloat the Princess long before the insurance company gives its own assessment of the ship's condition firsthand. Which, of course, Sulpicio Lines did not do. They decided not to refloat the ship for insurance reasons, a phrase too subtle for its substitute term financial reasons. At its best, the company could only go far enough to secure themselves from the monetary crisis they would have to face. At its worst, the company could very well resist the literal and figurative stench exuded by the rotten bodies floating aimlessly within the ship's belly.
What about the P200,000 that they promised to give the families of the victims as part of their insurance? Well, that might bode well with the claimants, assuming of course that they receive the financial benefit, or consolation. But to say that a few hundred thousand pesos is quite enough to cover the dirt and grime of the company is not quite sensible enough. The last time I checked, human life is still priceless. Or it should truly be priceless. You have a human eye, you know suffering and injustice whenever you see one, perhaps even before you do so, and you're called upon to hold the sanctity of life as something far more precious than paychecks. You have a human eye, you know life is priceless whenever you see how money can't console bereaved souls, or even before you do so, and you're called upon to defend life with life itself, or more than that, to defend life with death itself.
But you have an evil capitalist's eye, none of the sights of various shapes and sizes of gore can give you a lesson of humility and of humanity, and for humility and for humanity.
The wanton disregard for innocent lives is tempting enough to incarcerate those who dream of perpetuating the nightmare that they have casted down on this country for eternity, or for the rest of their lives. That wanton disregard is all the more tempting when one company tries to extinguish their moral obligations by acting out as if their monetary dole outs serve as their tickets to liberty from all the obligations that stare them in the face. I do recall one thing. Before the news came out, the news that Sulpicio Lines is willing and ready to pay the relatives of the victims a sum of money, the company were silent, as if resting in silent mode badly needing a recharge. They were speechless, or were nowhere to be found at the height of the angst and anger of the relatives of the victims who flocked to their offices. They had the seemingly perfect excuse that they were busy gathering information from underneath before they came out in public.
But it wasn't a perfect excuse. In the first place, there should be no excuse. There should have been no excuse, not even the wrath of typhoon Frank. Any way you look at it, you don't blame the weather for the sea tragedy. The storm, unpredictable as its nature is, sees no mercy in any thing that is brave enough, or foolish enough, to stand in its path. Not even a 23,000 ton floating metal can put the typhoon in a state of pause, like what you do with suspense movies at the pressing of the remote button. You know there's a storm ahead, you don't come-up with a wise decision by plunging straight into it. On the contrary, that's utter folly.
When the news first broke, the Go family should have immediately raced first to the press and raised their position on the tragedy which, of course, is to claim responsibility first and last. It's their ship for crying out loud. The captain is their captain for crying out loud. The passengers are their passengers for crying out loud. And then all they gave was silence when all hell broke loose? Hell, they could've even hinted at a faint sign of civility by showing themselves up in public when the public is calling upon them, or is demanding for their shadows to confront the people, or before the public went berserk by demanding for their heads to pop out of nowhere. Least of it all, the company could've simply risen from the rubble by announcing that they are now doing something, which is to gather information, instead of doing nothing, which is to sit things out while the rest of the people burn from the fire and ire of the tragedy.
It's about time to actually imprison those responsible in this tragedy. One death is one too many. One accident is one too many. Four times and more make it no longer an accident. It makes it look like a crime. It makes it a crime.
And it's about time to stop Go. It's about time to stop Sulpicio Lines from committing more "accidents" in the future. Jail the criminal, or criminals, to put it simply. Stop the negligence by stopping the negligent.
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