The Philippine Daily Inquirer
Monday, September 21, 1998
Opinion
Political Tidbits
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
THE TRAGEDY involving a Sulpicio Lines vessel underscores our terrible plight and compounds the problem of getting around this country safely and fast. PAL has closed down as a result of the impasse—between management and labor (the hand of super labor agitator Popoy Lagman is being blamed by many in the media), but the second biggest airline was suspended due to its failure to follow safety procedures. On the other hand, our shipping vessels are too few to accommodate all the inter-island passengers and many of them are unsafe especially in the stormy months. Initial reports indicate that uneven cargo distribution caused the boat to list to starboard amid the heavy winds, finally causing it to sink. It might also have been overloaded, as people were reported to still be clambering aboard even while the boat was moving—perhaps in their desperation to get a ride. The government has to remedy the plight of the poor riding public.
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