Thursday, July 24, 2008 Arroyo wants audit of Sulpicio vessels rushed
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday ordered the hastening of auditing of the Sulpicio Line, Inc. (SLI) vessels after 14 of their ships have been grounded including those that serve as roll on-roll off vessels, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.
Dureza said Arroyo issued the directive during her meeting with representatives from different shipping firms, including SLI, in Cebu City.
He said the discussions centered on the current cargo shipping operations which has been affected by the grounding of the SLI ships.
He said the President wants SLI vessels that have already been audited and passed the requirements to start operations immediately.
"There are 14 vessels now grounded, eight of them have already passed the requirements," said Dureza.
Transportation undersecretary and Task Force Princess of the Stars head Elena Bautista said the auditing teams have started re-auditing eight of the 14 grounded SLI vessels and they expect to complete the re-auditing by Thursday.
Bautista said while other cargo shipping firms have committed to fill up the gap resulting from the grounding of SLI vessels, Sulpicio handles a big chunk of the cargo operations.
"Sulpcio said the deficiencies of these boats, in terms of hardware and software, have been addressed, and so SLI ships would be re-audited. After which they will be allowed to resume cargo operations again, once they have proven that they have addressed the deficiencies," she said.
She added that the priority is the cargo operations, as the passenger ferrying operations would still take time before they are allowed to resume.
Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the stalled shipments are probably negligible unless they fail to find a way to move the cargo.
He said the cargos mostly affected are the prime commodities from Mindanao which other shipping companies are ferrying.
Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde said the President at the meeting had ordered him to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development in extending assistance to 200 SLI employees that have been laid off since the grounding of Sulpicio vessels.
Remonde said the affected employees would be given some form of subsidy as they await SLI decision whether they would be rehired or other firms would take them in.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza said Government Service Insurance System general manager Winston Garcia was also directed by the President to upgrade the insurance coverage of small and medium sized shipping companies to make them at par with their domestic counterparts.
He said the country also received a US$300,000 grant from Norway to help draft an Omnibus Philippine Merchant Shipping Act that would compile all rules for shipping in the country.
According to him, SLI and the Salvor Titan would sign a contract Thursday for the surveying of the toxicity level at the sunken MV Princess of the Stars.
Mendoza said SLI would pay for the services of Salvor Titan.
The survey may take seven to 10 days which would involve one to two personnel of Salvor Titan that would create a hole in the vessel and enter the ship to take pictures and evidence of the state of toxicity following after tons of endosulfan were loaded in the ship. (JMR/Sunnex)
