Solar 1 owner bankrupt; Crew get 'last salary' this December
Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation, the owner of the sunken tanker M/T Solar 1, has been rendered 'virtually bankrupt' by the oil spill in Guimaras.
As it handed what it says is the "last salary" of the officers and crew of Solar 1, SMDC president Clemente Cancio said, "That is why it is with deep regret and a heavy heart that this salary for the 15th of December 2006 shall be your last."
"You all know that the Company is virtually bankrupt and non-operational since the sinking incident but the Management has done its best to keep you in its payroll for five (5) months. Presently, the company has run out of funds for your salary and other basic operational expenses," Cancio said in the letter dated December 19, 2006.
A call was made to the office of the SMDC but it was unanswered.
Petron Corporation chartered Solar 1 to transport two million liters of bunker fuel to Zamboanga. The ship sunk under heavy seas last August 11 off the coast of Guimaras, triggering the country's worst oil spill. Clean up and rehabilitation are being conducted at the present.
The crew of the sunken tanker are at a quandary over the letter.
"We don't know if we are being terminated or what," crew member Reynaldo Torio said during a phone interview yesterday. He pointed out that if they're being terminated, the Company should pay them separation pay, but none was paid them except for their salary.
Likewise, SMDC has yet to pay unpaid wages for the 15th of September and 30th of November.
Cancio promised in his letter that the unpaid wages once the company receives the proceeds of the hull and machinery insurance from Stronghold Insurance.
"But we don't think we'd ever get paid because the company has not been paying its premium," Torio said, quoting what was told them by SMDC operations officer Ernest Louie Noel.
The fate of the crew of Solars 2 and 3 are no different from us, Torio revealed.
Following the sinking of Solar 1 and the ensuing oil spill, the government has canceled the permit of SMDC and ordered the grounding of the two remaining ships. As a result, the crew have been on a 'floating status' ever since.
"They get no salary but they're not sure whether or not they've been terminated," Torio said of the crew of Solars 2 and 3.
There has already been two hearings on the labor case, but Cancio would give his assurance that the crew will be paid their wages, Torio said.
The ill-fated Solar 1 is still lying under water, around 600 meters deep, off Guimaras with hundreds of thousands of liters of bunker fuel remaining in its belly.
According to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF) the remaining oil would be recovered between January and February next year to prevent further damage to marine life and to the coastal communities.