THE EROSION OF HUMANITY

(Before anything else, I’d like to say this: My beef with that blogger, Laruku, is officially over. It’s all water under the bridge now. There are far more issues to tackle for us to dwell on what have already been written. I do, however, appreciate those who took the time to read my post and comment on it.)

I’d like to move on now, so I’ve decided to articulate my views on an altogether different issue: the tragic sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, a ship owned by Sulpicio Lines.

There are so many words to describe how the Sulpicio Lines management has handled the tragedy of its sunken ship, the MV Princess of the Stars: appalling, horrific, disgusting, outrageous, and sickening come to mind; only, you’d have to pair each of those words with equally vile adverbs (e.g., terribly appalling, cruelly horrific, dreadfully disgusting) for those words to fully describe how detestable the Sulpicio Lines management has handled the situation they’re in.

Instead of saying sorry to the many grieving victims of this tragedy, the Sulpicio Lines management showed the bereaved families a palpable lack of concern and sympathy, even letting them wait long hours in front of the Sulpicio Lines head office before they were given much needed information about the tragedy. Seeing restless, crying, and inconsolable people pleading to the guards of the Sulpicio Lines head office to let them in was as infuriating as it was heart-twitching. When I saw this woman––her bloody-red eyes still welling with tears and her voice choked by her uncontrollable sobs––pleading to the guards to let them in, a part of me wanted to just go there and shatter those glass doors with an oversized steel pipe. I mean, really, is it that hard nowadays to show a semblance of sympathy to grief-stricken people?

The Sulpicio Lines management reminded me that there are people whose values and humanity have corroded to frightening extremes.

Instead of choosing the high road by accepting responsibility, the Sulpicio Lines management chose to absolve itself from any wrongdoing, to exonerate itself from any culpability. The Sulpicio Lines management blamed everyone else for the tragedy––the Coast Guard, MARINA, PAGASA, Del Monte, and even the passengers (for allegedly not following the captain’s order to ‘abandon ship’)––and conveniently forgot to point a finger at the egregious mistakes it committed. Unfortunately, it seems that no one from the upper hierarchy of Sulpicio Lines has the conscience or even the humility to accept the fact that Sulpicio Lines was just as responsible for the tragedy. (I mean, SuperFerry and Negros Navigation cancelled all their trips that day because they knew there was a storm; why didn’t Sulpicio Lines do the same, right? Why did the Sulpicio Lines management not tell the rescuers that there was a cargo of endosulfan on board?)

Instead of fast-tracking the body retrieval operations by letting the Coast Guard just refloat the sunken ship, the Sulpicio Lines management chose not to sign off on the idea simply because––surprise, surprise!––it will not be able to claim full insurance of the ship. Essentially, the bigwigs from Sulpicio Lines are saying, "Fuck those dead bodies! We don’t really care if they rot at sea AS LONG AS WE GET PAID!" (Although the people in charge of the retrieval operations have decided to refloat the ship already, I still believe that it should have been done a week ago!)

But the most disgusting thing that the Sulpicio Lines management did was put a price on human life. A day after the tragic sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, a representative from the shipping line proudly said in an interview with the press that Sulpicio Lines would give the families of dead victims Php. 200,000 each and "offer" financial assistance to the survivors and their families, as if money was the only thing that would make all the pain, heartache, and bad memories go away. She even said this with such a straight face and an even-keeled voice that it makes Arnold Schwarzennegger look emotional. Php. 200,000 for a human life? Financial assistance for the lifetime’s worth of trauma and stress? Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?

Exactly what right do people have to put a price on the life of someone? Money can never replace or compensate a lifetime of lost memories.

The actions (and corresponding inaction) of the Sulpicio Lines management were heartless, cruel, disgusting, and incomprehensible. They were sad, disheartening reminders of how badly the humanity of some people has eroded. In fact, not once since the tragedy has the Sulpicio Lines management shown any semblance of humanity.

Remember those split infinitives I mentioned at the start to describe how the Sulpicio Lines management has handled this tragedy? Terribly appalling. Cruelly horrific. Dreadfully disgusting. Yes, the actions of the Sulpicio Lines management were all that––and more, in fact.