Filipino Voices

For once, I am going to be on the side of Secretary Raul Gonzalez. In most cases, his nonsensical political attacks become the most amusing part of my days. His delusional analysis is usually the butt of many jokes, but today, I am on his side, as he continues his attack against Sulpicio Lines. Let Sulpicio Lines have to deal with this annoying guy, and I hope Gonzalez gets this company for all it’s worth.

Secretary Gonzalez has scored Sulpicio Lines because of how it has gone out of its way to announce the P200,000 payout for the families of the victims, and yet has made it hard for these families to receive legal advice from The Public Attorney’s Office, which is part of The Department of Justice. He has threatened Sulpicio Lines because of word that the company may be part of a scam to distribute blank Special Power of Attorney (SPA) forms.

Sulpicio Lines is in a process of spewing out misinformation in order to further confuse the families who are not only grieving, but are also having to face the reality that their loved onces are still missing, may not be found, and that the loss of income may be devastating to their entire family.

This is why, if there is anything that makes the corporate life of Sulpicio Lines any more daunting, I am all for it.

This is a battle that I am all too willing let play out. And as annoying as Raul Gonzalez can get, I am glad at this moment, he’s focusing all of his annoying energy towards Sulpicio Lines and the despicable management and owner.

I am a realist however, and I know just how far this goes, and it will be all talk, but no implementation or even cases filed. I hope I am wrong in this assertion, but I am not holding my breath either.

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In other news regarding Sulpicio Lines, the scum-of-the-earth Vice President of Sulpicio Lines, Edgar Go, makes sure that media is there to cover the Public Relations photo-op that he had with a few of the families of the victims, as he handed out their P200,000 bribe claim.

In any case, the company is so full of itself, that once again, they are going to try to throw money at a problem for which they have no solution for. Well, actually, there is one solution. Just get out of the damn business, and take your clan with you. Damn company even had the poor family members line up as if they needed their charity.

They don’t need charity, they need compassion, and justice. Something obviously, Sulpicio Lines cannot give them.

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At this point, I am all too grateful for the many bloggers who have had some great viewpoints and have written some great posts regarding the Sulpicio Lines Tragedy of MV Princess of The Stars. Earlier today, I wrote over at Tingog.com, the possibility Sulpicio LInes getting out of this tragedy unscathed and still in business. This scenario would once again put our nation at a threshold towards the death of Justice, but I don’t think that we as a nation should let this company go on any further.

Thank goodness, that individuals such as the writer of Mount Balatucan Mirror shares my passion of ridding the seas of this great evil in the form of Sulpicio Lines. He even pens a new term, that I will probably be using myself, as he renames the Sulpicio Ships, Floating Coffins.

Ducky Paredes pens an article, “The Devil Made Me Do It“, a reference to Sulpicio Line’s claim that this tragedy was an act of God.

Was it John Madden, the American football coach who first said, “sometimes the best defense is a good offense?” Whoever it was, the management of Sulpicio Lines, Inc. seemed to have been listening. This is the playbook that Sulpicio is going by when it filed a civil suit against the Weather Bureau.

When the accident had just happened, Sulpicio Lines, Inc. first seemed to be blaming God when they proclaimed that what happened was an “Act of God.” Their engine never quit, God did this thing.

This assertion was immediately answered by Bishop Teodoro Bacani: “That was not an act of God. That was human error. Maybe they were playing favorites or they were requested to do so that’s why the authorities allowed the sea vessel to set sail against their better judgment.”

Of course, the bishop is right. God never did anything to any Suplicio ships, although considering the number of passengers who have died on Sulpicio vessels, the owners may be thinking that an angry God is after them for whatever it is they did in a previous life. (The sinking of the MV Dona Paz killed more persons than the 9/11 terrorist attack, the bombing of Manila in World War II or the massacre of the innocents by King Herod.)

Okay. I guess that the way Sulpicio thinks: “If we can’t pin this one on God. Let’s blame the Weather Bureau. Everyone knows that they are always wrong anyway in their forecasts.”

They are apparently serious about this and have filed for several million pesos in damages from the ones who run Pagasa, the Weather Bureau.

But, honestly, this looks like a nuisance suit. In fact, the way that these things work, it is the captain of a vessel and not anyone else who ultimately decides whether his plane will fly of his ship will sail. It is always a judgment call on the part of the master of the vessel. If he does not like the sound of the engine, if he thinks that the weather will worsen, if he does not like some of the passengers on board, he will not sail or fly.

If there was anyone that I would love to be on my side as well, it’s Jenny, who if everyone remembers, was the individual who initiated the BlogSwarm for Gloria Resign. In a recent entry, her words ring out clear, as she asks, if this was accidental or criminal,

Please quit blaming the typhoon and PAGASA. In the 30 something years I’ve been an inhabitant of this country, I’ve been a witness to the devastation that the typhoons have wreaked. I know that sometimes it’s close to impossible to always be able to track where exactly it’s heading because some typhoons are as stubborn as me. But still, we have enough information to guide us on how to best prepare for the eventuality. So, why weren’t they frickin prepared while the two other bigger shipping lines were?

Again, ONE (time) can be considered as Accidental. But FOUR (times)? That’s Criminal.

End this vicious cycle. Cancel their franchise. Make them pay for the four times they’ve put the Philippines on the map for having the worst peacetime maritime disaster in the whole history of the world, far more greater than the Titanic. We can live without Sulpicio. There are more worthy ship operators – operators who follow regulations. This is way too much already.

But as to why sometimes, we Filipinos don’t have the balls to stand up to these no good companies, definitely lies in our culture and the fact that our religious leaders seem to think that it is alright to be stepped on. If these religious folks would only realize that even Jesus stood his ground, that even David stood his ground against Goliath, and so many others in the Bible, they would realize that it is in the interest of good that one fight evil and not stand idly by and just forgo accountability.

This is why, when I read blog posts by “Tongue-Echoes” I am disheartened, because even though the intention of good is there, it is based on a groundless notion, that what makes us a good people is the willingness to forgive then pray, and forgetting the most important concept of all, that of accountability. We must pay for our sins. And mind you, Sulpicio has enough of that to go around.

The Good Girl Blog, echoes what many Filipinos would probably want to do. Although, I don’t condone violence, I would gratefully accept the closure of Sulpicio Lines. Ricky Carandang puts it in a more civil way, INSENSITIVE.

And lastly, a blog titled Perpetuity puts it nicely,

But the most disgusting thing that the Sulpicio Lines management did was put a price on human life. A day after the tragic sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, a representative from the shipping line proudly said in an interview with the press that Sulpicio Lines would give the families of dead victims Php. 200,000 each and “offer” financial assistance to the survivors and their families, as if money was the only thing that would make all the pain, heartache, and bad memories go away. She even said this with such a straight face and an even-keeled voice that it makes Arnold Schwarzennegger look emotional. Php. 200,000 for a human life? Financial assistance for the lifetime’s worth of trauma and stress? Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?