The loss of a single human life is tragic. The loss of nine, more so. That’s the number of confirmed dead in the 6th September sinking of the Superferry 9 in the southern Philippines, the rest of the ship’s 968 passengers and crew having narrowly escaped to tell the tale. But the real tragedy behind Superferry 9 and the long string of maritime accidents that came before is less obvious.

It is the seeming inability of Filipinos as a nation to bewail, to express outrage at, the never-ending slaughter at sea. Have Filipinos become inured? Perhaps so, but that doesn’t explain the fact that little has changed since the December 1987 Dona Paza ferry disaster that snuffed out, according to the World Almanac, 4,341 lives.

For sure, there was plenty of grief and anger (mostly from the victims’ families) in the immediate aftermath. But 22 years on, who gives a hoot? The country’s maritime regulations are still poorly enforced; interisland vessels are shabbily maintained; and no one gets as much as a slap on the wrist for causing serious mishaps.

How starkly different the American handling of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Capt Joseph Hazelwood, who was cleared of the more serious charge of being intoxicated at the time of the accident, was fined US$50,000 and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service for negligent discharge of oil. In addition, he got a suspended two year jail sentence – spared from the slammer only because the judge felt that the man had suffered enough humiliation.

Exxon itself had to pay through the nose to clean up the spill – more than US$2 billion. Although no human life was lost, the incident was the 9/11 of American shipping. It triggered such a public uproar that the world was to eventually witness tighter US and international laws aimed at preventing marine pollution.

It’s ironic that Filipinos, who pride themselves in being the only Christian nation in Asia, are incredibly nonchalant toward the continuing death toll from sea accidents. Ship operators certainly couldn’t care less. We got an inkling of why some years ago, when we took a boat ride from the central Philippine port city of Cebu to Manila.

The vessel which we had the privilege of boarding reeked of cow dung as she had just arrived  from Mindanao with a cargo of livestock. The smell of urine that wafted from the toilets in the first class section after the original passengers had disembarked was not more tolerable. The olfactory experience, however, was to be the least unpleasant part of our journey.

Just before departure time, the vessel’s main engine conked out. After the crew failed to fix the problem, the master decided anyway to set sail for Manila with only the auxiliary engine running – a full two hours behind schedule. The upshot was that it took the vessel 36 hours to reach its destination instead of the normal 21 hours.

We were to learn later on that the ship’s owners were wont to ordering a vessel, already several miles from shore, to steam back to the Port of Cebu at the last minute to pick up a container that was delivered too late for loading. Passenger convenience can fly out the porthole.  In the world of Philippine domestic shipping, money rules. ~Barista Uno