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. |
