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Cebu mayor pushes for stricter rules on smaller sea transport

By John Rey Saavedra

August 9, 2019, 6:02 pm

<p><strong>LESSON LEARNED.</strong> Residents of Ermita village in Cebu City flock to the gymnasium where the remains of seven of their nine neighbors who died in a sea tragedy in Iloilo lie at a wake, as the city and village officials arrange for their burial on Sunday (August 11, 2019). Mayor Edgardo Labella said the fate of his nine constituents should serve as a 'lesson learned' and a basis to craft stricter rules on sea transport.<em> (PNA photo by John Rey Saavedra)</em></p>

LESSON LEARNED. Residents of Ermita village in Cebu City flock to the gymnasium where the remains of seven of their nine neighbors who died in a sea tragedy in Iloilo lie at a wake, as the city and village officials arrange for their burial on Sunday (August 11, 2019). Mayor Edgardo Labella said the fate of his nine constituents should serve as a 'lesson learned' and a basis to craft stricter rules on sea transport. (PNA photo by John Rey Saavedra)

CEBU CITY -- Mayor Edgardo Labella on Friday said he will communicate with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to push for stricter sea travel regulations to small-scale ocean-going transport facilities after the death of nine Cebuanos in a sea tragedy involving three motorized boats in Iloilo last August 3.

“Here we go again. We have not learned our lessons. We have other victims of a sea accident,” Labella, who himself is a survivor of the 1998 sinking of MV Princess of the Orient, said in a radio interview.

Labella said smaller sea transportation such as the motorized boats that sank off the coast of Iloilo and claimed the lives of 31 passengers, including nine residents of Ermita village here, are the favorite mode of sea travel for poor passengers because of cheap fare.

“You know that sea travel is the cheapest mode of travel. That’s why many poor people patronize it because that’s the fastest kind of transportation that they can easily access,” Labella said in Cebuano.

Labella said that one purpose of writing to the PCG in Iloilo is to assert the rights of the nine victims, all of whom are his constituents.

Labella said there are government agencies that have not learned from the lessons of past sea mishaps that claimed the lives of hundreds of Filipinos.

“I myself am a victim of a sea tragedy. That’s why I keep emphasizing saying ‘here we go again’”, he said.

Labella and his wife survived when the MV Princess of the Orient owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc., sank near Fortune Island in Batangas on Sept. 18, 1998. Around 80 passengers and crew remain missing after the tragedy. He was the last survivor floating on the ocean for 36 hours in the middle of typhoon Vicki.

Labella’s statement came as the residents of Ermita village mourn the remains of their neighbors who died in the mishap and now lie in a wake at the barangay gymnasium.

Romhel Baguio, who lost his parents and two brothers and nephew to the tragedy, said the city government has promised to provide assistance for the burial of his family members on Sunday.

Ermita village chief Mark Miral is now coordinating with the city government for the financial aid and burial arrangement.

Most of the remains are already in the state of decomposition when they arrived in Cebu.

The remains of Jared Janson, Danilyn Baguio, Rommel Baguio, Dannelle Baguio, Romeo Baguio Sr., Angelina Baguio, and Bernardo Janson arrived at the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday afternoon on board the C-130 aircraft of the Philippine Air Force.

Two other fatalities, Romeo Baguio Jr. and Jay Arvien Baguio, would be transported from Iloilo to Guimaras as Romeo Jr.’s common-law wife, Maria Nieves Grandeza, a survivor of the accident, is a native of the island-province. (PNA)

 

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