stop sulpicio?

the exchange in the comments section of manolo‘s post supporting the blogswarm “stop sulpicio lines” is worth sharing – an edited version, of course, highlighting why the stopping of sulpicio is problematic.

banat ni djb rizalist (bully for him ;)

Considering the volume of cargo and passenger traffic that Sulpicio Lines handles, it is inconceivablethat their operations would be entirely taken out…that would cause a major economic dislocation, not to say suffering on the part of many impoverished families and big and small businesses.

Could the upshot (of) a successful campaign against Sulpicio then merely result in the government taking it over, as GMA has hinted? Would that not conceivably result in some even bigger tragedy, considering that the typhoon season has barely begun? I’m mad at Sulpicio Lines too, but what exactly are we asking for here?”

susog ni bencard:

given that sulpicio is the ONLY major shipping line in the philippines providing relatively cheap transportation to and from each major island of the country, how could you afford to stop its operations instantaneously, even if you could legally? do you think “accidents” would not occur under someone else’s control, including the government’s? meanwhile, should life for all the people and families depending on the company be put on hold while a suitable replacement is being determined?”

agree si dominique:

More than punitive measures we need remedial measures to address the shipping industry, in terms of safety, competition, and cost.

suggest ni cvj:

Since the government needs funds, taking over Sulpicio so that its earnings from operations can fund the improvement of the shipping industry, instead of further enriching the Go Family, should be looked into. Perhaps it can temporarily be attached to the Philippine navy, which also need ships.

agree si leytenian:

This tragedy is not only domestic. The history and bad reputation of this company will actually scare foreign capital and hurt our credibility even further. Let’s do what’s right for the country and for the majority. (Under the government) the students and seniors will enjoy a discounted rates, at the same time small businesses can be subsidized thru discounted shipping of goods. The government can hire more employees…

unimpressed si kg:

government takeover? yeah winston garcia should do it but with the same fleet? rejects junk and retirable vessels, what can a government takeover do. are we back to the question of nationalization and denationalization.

say ni bencard:

cvj, while the navy may have the knowhow to sail a ship for sea battle, i don’t know if it has the expertise to operate a shipping line to transport passengers and cargo. it sounds “simple, really” but i think there’s more to sailing a commercial ship than just keeping it afloat and reaching its destination. so you guys think the government can handle it better, huh? can you name one government-run common carrier that operates efficiently and prosperously? are you familiar with the manila railroad co. and what happened to it after the politicians took over?

balik ni cvj:

The logic of resorting to privatization because we fear the incompetence of government has reached its limit in the case of Sulpicio. We have seen how market forces and private competition are useless against the negligence of an oligopoly. In any Society, government is the last resort to handle these kinds of failures, so at some point,we have to tackle the problem of government incompetence head on. Failing to rejuvenate government would leave us at the point where the public has no choice but to tolerate the practices of Oligarchs like the Go family.

sa ganang akin cvj and leytenian have a point, but it aint gonna happen – there’s simply no rejuvenating government overnight; maybe in 2010 ;)

samantala it doesn’t have to mean we’re tolerating the practices of oligarchs like the go family. not if sulpicio is allowed to resume operations only under certain conditions:

1. ititigil nito ang paghahabla sa pagasa at ang pagbintang kay god. sa halip ay aaminin, aakuin, ang major responsibility for the disaster, magpa-public apology, and magpa-promise to indemnify both survivors and victims’ families in appropriate amounts, the records to be open to public scrutiny

2. upang ma-break ang pattern of disasters na associated na with “sulpicio lines,” the owners will change the name of the shipping line and the ships – enough already with the donyas and prinsesas – again in the full glare of the public eye, sabay upgrade its safety standards, thus signalling a rebirth, a new beginning, and hopefully better karma all around for a change.

deadly mabuhay kills chikatime

interesante ang nagaganap sa gossip corner of the blogosphere. akalain niyo, napa-shutdown ng isang gucci gang blog-girl ang chikatime.com, the notorious gossip blog that dared cackle in nasty bading-speak at celebrities and other society climbers, and not from some ivory tower a la kitty go but from the mean, and i mean MEAN side of the tracks, a long way away from the red carpet:

The site claims to receive 4,000 hits a day-even on days when no updates are posted. Chikatime’s claim to fame-or one of them-is breaking the Brian Gorrell-DJ Montano story before Gorrel put up his own blog.

But Brian and DJ aren’t the only subjects of Chikatime. It has targeted almost everyone, from celebrities and fashionistas to columnists, editors and socialites. They have “leads” coming in from everywhere-even supposedly industry insiders.

The blog seems to be this era’s weapon of mass destruction. It could be a greattool of expression and creative prose, or it could be a means of anarchy and vendetta.

It could be the hoi polloi’s voice from outside the red carpet, the other side of the velvet rope.

Chikatime entries range from eyebrow-raising to downright nasty. Bouncing checks, gate-crashing, backstabbing, locker-room embarrassments-the blog is packed with enough dirt to make the Upper East Side sound like Pleasantville.”

sabi rin ni kitty go:

Chikatime has a GREAT FORMULA no one comes close to:
1) a great sense of humor
2) a hilarious command of Taglish and Bading-speak
3) graphic photos
4) magnificent moles”

of course, imbiyerna ang mga pa-altasyudad na natatampok sa chikatime, like the gucci gang fashionista shoppingera blog-girl who says puro kasinungalingan at panlalait ang sinasabi dito, which, come to think of it, is exactly the gucci gang’s complaint re brian’s dj blog. but brian is out of reach in australia (or is it canada now), while the blogger behind chikatime, the gucci gang blog-girl found out, is taga-makati lang pala and making less than 20 kiyaw a month (smalltime!) so she threatens to out him unless he deletes, retracts, apologizes, and creates a link to her site – susmaryosep! you wonder what she’s really after. chikatime’s traffic? no wonder chikatime shut down na lang.

but gossip, like hope, springs eternal. if the gucci gang blog-girl thinks she’s home free, she has another think coming. unless she shuts down, too, of course.

walang iwanan sa bayanijuan? *LOL*

i hate to rain on abs-cbn channel 2’s parade but i must say, medyo ill-timed ang kanilang “bayanijuan” papogi promo, coming as it does when the people’s lopez-meralco woes remain unresolved. this must be why ang dating sa akin ay tipong damage control. the network’s way of distancing itself from the lopez owners’ other bigtime earner meralco, as if to say, wala kaming kinalaman diyan, ha. haha, how ilusyonado naman.

even more unfortunate, the campaign was launched in the wake of anc’s news embargo on the ces drilon kidnapping, so that my kneejerk reaction was, ano daw? walang iwanan? in my book, iwanan blues ang nangyari when maria ressa simply refused to tell us what she knew, even when ces drilon was already out of danger. iwanan blues ang patuloy na nangyayari since ayaw pa rin nilang magkuwento, how afraid, how careful, naman.

hindi bale sana kung naiiba itong kampanyang bayanijuan, eh not in the least. it’s just another show (pakitang-tao) of “corporate social responsibility” as practiced by oligarchs who make sooooooo much money out of selling us all sorts of things, they assuage their guilt by “giving back,” i.e., undertaking relief projects for disaster victims and donating a small percentage of their huge profits to generate income and services for the poor, which, really, barely make a dent on the country’s poverty and hunger situation, much like government dole-outs. teaching a man to fish instead of giving him fish no longer works, not when the big ships get to the fish first.

‘ika nga ni environmentalist maximo “junie” kalaw back in the ’90s:

Quite a few business enterprises would be found caught in the internal contradiction of donating to the poor with one hand and contributing to their poverty with the other.

A better way of approaching the issue is to consider the business community’s relationship with the people and with the resources utilized,in the context of the whole community.

The questions to ask are not about which social projects may be appended to a business enterprise but about what goods it is producing and how; what resources it is using. . . . what technology is being used. . . . what its effects are on the people and the environment; how profit is earned, who benefits, and who is deprived by the economic activity.”

kumbaga, kung media ang pinagkakakitaan, sa pamamagitan din ng media mag-give-back to the people. if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan it is in a very good position to do so simply by broadening its thrust – imbes na puro escapist entertainment, give the public some intelligent informative stuff naman, yung meron silang mapupulot na kaalaman na maaaring ikaangat ng kanilang buhay.

topping my list would be daily 30-minuters (to be aired three or more times a day) that would teach us all to speak better english (and tagalog, and maybe the basics of bisaya, ilokano, kampampangan) harnessing the potentials of audio-visual technologies to teach classroom stuff in appealing interesting effective ways.

i can hear the sighs. walang mag-a-advertise sa ganyang show, saan sila kukuha ng pera pang-produce? aha. here’s precisely where “giving back” (good for the soul) or “paying forward” (good for the karma) kicks in. abs-cbn shoulders the expenses, of course, in the spirit of corporate social responsibility. who knows, if they’re smart and call in their judays and claudines to pitch in and take turns hosting the shows, i’m sure may mag-a-advertise.

and how about bringing back the public affairs talk shows? if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan, ibalik naman please ang public affairs talk shows, which are essential to a democracy of adequately informed decisions. wag naman puro showbiz talk at reality tv. e ano kung walang mag-advertise. corporate social responsibility nga, di ba?

unfortunately, i’m not optimistic about abs-cbn. seems to me that its creatives are not quite tuned in to the real world. take the script of a series of video clips designed to inspire the youth to action:

“Jose Rizal, edad 26 nunglumabas ang Noli Me Tangere. . . . Jacinto at Del Pilar, 19 noong sumali sa Katipunan. . . . Ikaw, ilang taon ka na?”

LOL! AS IF! kung meron bang sumulat ngayon ng librong tipong noli me tangere, meron kayang magpa-publish? meron kayang magbabasa? basahin kaya ng mga taga-abs-cbn? at kung sumali ang kabataan sa isang samahang tipong katipunan, hindi ba’t ha-hunting-in lang sila ng military at makukulong, o mawawala a la jonas burgos? hahanapin kaya sila ng abs-cbn? LOL! AS IF!

how many deaths will it take…

my mind keeps singing to me these haunting lines from bob dylan’s sixties classic “blowing in the wind”:

…how many ears must one man have
before he can hear people cry
…how many deaths will it take till he knows
that too many people havedied…”

too many of our people have died, too many more of our people will die, if this fourth disaster courtesy of the notoriously careless sulpicio lines is allowed, as usual, to go unpunished.

writes marlen v. ronquillo of the manila times:

From time immemorial, the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), Philippine-version, has been identified with two things. It is either a fangless tiger or a board that almost always tilts to the side of a negligent shipowner.

Nothing on the voluminous archives of the BMI inquiries reveal sympathy and empathy for the victims of sea tragedies. The anti-victim tilt is understandable. It is the scum of the earth, the poor, thewretched that board the overloaded floating coffins. They can perish at sea and no one-after the initial media hysteria-will mourn their passing.

The owners of the shipping lines are rich, powerful, politically connected. They have lawyers and political sponsors, if they are not big political families themselves. The past and present names of Philippine shipping giants, including the responsible ones, are a collection of Philippine society’sWho’s Who: Aboitiz, Escano, Madrigal, Chiongbian, Go, Ledesma, etc….

The inquiries and recommendations of BMIs, past and present, have a pattern. Ship tragedies, even those that kill passengers by the thousands, are always ” acts of nature.”

Shipownersand operators, if they are cited at all, are mostly given a slap on the wrists.

It is the shameless and almost criminal pandering of past and present BMIs to the interest of shipowners and operators that provides the ideal environment for the creation of special admiralty courts. These are the courts that try maritime cases.

England and the other First World countries with long maritime traditions have these courts. Maritime justice is rendered fairly and swiftly. In England, the courts always tend to rule in favor of the victims, not the shipowners and operators, even if this means a hemorrhage at the Lloyd’s of London, which insures the ships, cargo and passengers.

If there is an ideal time and context to create Philippine admiralty courts, it is now.”