|
Grieving families 03 July 2008 |
. |
|
For the second
consecutive Friday, I was in Cebu City, but this time on instructions of
the President from across the Pacific to look after the families and
survivors of the missing passengers of Sulpicio Lines’ ill-starred
Princess. Yesterday (Wednesday, July 2, 2008), I was with the President when she personally visited and met the families at the Abellana Action Center. Last Monday, the President prayed for the victims at the site of the tragedy, off Sibuyan Island. On my earlier visit, I worked with Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama and the city council’s dynamic duo, Councilors Gerry Carillo and Jack Jakosalem, the city’s overlords of disaster relief. Of the Princess passengers and ship complement, at least 130 were from Cebu City, over 300 from Cebu province, and the rest from neighboring communities in Mindanao and the rest of the Visayas. The Sulpicio Princess was en route to Cebu from Manila when it capsized off Sibuyan Island under the lashing winds of storm Frank the other Friday or early Saturday. Monday after the sea tragedy, Cebu City established the Action Center at the Abellana Sports Complex, bringing together the lead service arms of government – Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, National Bureau of Investigation, Public Assistance Office, etc. For the city, its own Department of Social Welfare Services was working in tandem with DSWD. The immediate concern of the President was the comfort and needs of the victims’ families, who flocked to the Manila and Cebu offices of Sulpicio, anxious for word on the fate of their loved ones, hoping to be reunited with them, or waiting to identify and claim their remains. From the United States, the President ordered the release of R1 million for the families at Abellana. Vice Mayor Mike Rama, assisted by City Administrator Bimbo Fernandez, organized a briefing on the ground situation, and together with Chief Public Attorney Persy RuedaAcosta, who came in on the same flight with me from Manila, we covered most of the social, health, financial and legal ground. A Sulpicio Lines lawyer and some direct representatives of the Sulpicio owners were also there. In the afternoon of that day, the initial batch of 49 recovered remains, mostly unidentified, was due in Cebu, and arrangements for their identification by relatives was uppermost in the briefing agenda. Dr. Renato Bautista of NBI Forensics, a medico-legal veteran of similar calamities and disasters, including the killer tsunami in Thailand, warned the group of the condition and state of the recovered remains, as he explained why he was discouraging the posting of photos as earlier suggested by some relatives. Later, when I went with the early batches of relatives and survivors who viewed the initial batch of recovered remains, I knew exactly what Dr. Bautista meant, as the full nauseating impact hit me. Sulpicio Lines said it will liberalize the legal process for the settlement of claims, even waiving the one-year waiting period for presumptive death in case of loss at sea or in disasters. The company is also expected to extend funeral assistance. Also, to facilitate the process, the National Statistics Office, in coordination with DSWD and PAO, is facilitating issuance of the necessary certificates. The city’s move establishing the action and assistance center at Abellana Sports Complex barely two days after the tragedy is indeed commendable. The confusion and highwire tensions that happened in Manila were avoided. Help desks, counseling services by DSWD and DoH, libreng tawag by Smart, Philippine National Red Cross First Aid, and a whole array of other services by volunteer organizations make the Abellana Action Center an oasis of support for the grieving survivors. |
|
| [TOP] [HOME] | |