Gordon eyes raps vs maritime officials over sea mishap

Senator Richard Gordon will recommend charges against several maritime and insurance officials in connection with the Dec. 26 sinking of a passenger ferry off Batangas province where six people were killed while dozens other remain missing. “I am going to recommend to the Ombudsman that charges be prepared against them… for this criminal neglect of the highest level," Gordon said during Thursday’s blue ribbon committee hearing on the recent sea tragedies. He did not identify those he wanted charged, but said they are from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), and the Insurance Commission. “These [sea mishaps] show the government is not working. It shows a government… or an absence of government. We are worse than murderers," Gordon, the committee’s chairman, said. The officials could be slapped with homicide through negligence, malfeasance, nonfeasance, misfeasance, and even graft, according to Gordon, a presidential aspirant in the May 10 automated elections. Gordon, however, said that their investigation is not yet over, saying the committee will still have a few more hearings before releasing a final report. “What I am just saying is that I am going to give it the kind of airing it needs," he said. Also covered by the probe were the sinking of MV Catalyn B off Cavite province last Christmas Eve, and of Don Dexter off Masbate in November 2008. Both were also passenger vessels. Insurance During the hearing, Gordon chided insurance officials for excluding passengers who were not in the manifest from those who would receive payment. Raul de los Reyes of the Stronghold Insurance, the firm that will be paying the victims of the Baleno sinking, said only casualties included in the passenger manifest would be receiving money. Gordon said victims whose names were not in the list but were proven to have boarded the ship and had bought tickets should also be compensated. Patrick Ang, owner of the Besta Shipping Lines that operates MV Baleno 9, said they would “check on that." Ang also told the committee that they have an agreement with Stronghold Insurance that only passengers listed in the manifest are covered by the insurance policy. He also chided officials from the Insurance Commission for allegedly not doing their job properly, saying it has allowed the agreement between Besta Shipping Lines and Stronghold Insurance go unpublished in newspapers. Ester Abrazado, head of the Insurance Commission’s Rating Department, conceded in the hearing that the agreement should have been published. - KBK, GMANews.TV