Culture of Safety
Let’s admit it. We Filipinos are not a safety-conscious people. This week the string of sea mishaps over and above the fires caused by pyrotechnics, stray bullets, unattended appliances and unbelievably cheap but substandard Christmas lights are just some of the consequences if safety is taken for granted.
We’ve never learned from the past sea accidents to our country’s credit, including (and certainly not limited to) the Dona Paz tragedy which is considered the worst peace time sea mishap in the world, claiming at least 4,000 lives and dwarfing Titanic’s not so titanic death count of 1,517.
As of this writing, a rescue operation by the Philippine Navy continues for the missing passengers of the “ill-fated” MV Baleno 9 which sank in Batangas. Survivors say MV Baleno 9 sailed on calm seas before it capsized. This early investigators see uneven cargo distribution as the reason why it sank. Being a roll on roll off
ferry, the cargo (mainly vehicles) may have been haphazardly or carelessly loaded, hence the imbalance. The MV Baleno 9 tragedy came in the heels of the collision of rickety passenger ferry MV Catalyn B and fishing boat FB Anatalia in Cavite. A ferry carrying 130 passengers also ran aground near Dumaguete port. Luckily, all were rescued.
I feel uncomfortable using the words “ill fated” to describe most Philippine sea tragedies because really, fate had no hand in them. Ships in this country are brought down by negligence, disregard for safety and extreme greed for seasonal profits.
Sea mishaps mostly happen during peak travel season when many of us want to get on the fastest plane, boat or bus to our holiday destinations. This entices transport companies to overload or cut corners with safety regulation resulting in appalling misfortune.
I would have to side with the Maritime Industry Authority and the Philippine Coast Guard in saying that it is not the government’s sole responsibility to enforce transport safety. We cannot have inspectors scrutinizing each and every departing plane, bus or boat. Each transport company must also make sure passengers reach their destinations in one piece. This is the almost-sacred vow they make in exchange for a franchise for public conveyance. Yet many of them are still grossly irresponsible— never learning from costly mistakes which have put other companies out of business in the not so distant past.
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The absence of a culture of safety comes into focus during the annual New Year revelry where fires, firecracker accidents and death by stray bullets grace news headlines. But these gory stories have not dampened our tradition to end the year with a (bloody) bang.
Over the weekend, fires razed houses, slums and public markets in Pasay, Naga, Davao, Bukidnon and General Santos. Many of these were caused by electrical short circuit or firecracker explosions because a slapdash bystander smoked near the stands.
Three days into New Year’s Eve, the Department of Health reports over a hundred firecracker and stray bullet injuries already, drumming up the need for a more pervasive “Iwas Paputok” campaign. “Iwas Paputok” takes on an ardous task of promoting safety by asking everyone to break the firecracker culture— like selling condoms to a country that does not believe in family planning. Good luck with that.
Government and private groups in Albay have been taking turns in entertaining some 50,000 evacuees in Legazpi City. Even policemen and soldiers have shown their “softer side” as they danced to national-anthem-of-the-moment, “Nobody nobody”… while local politicians as well as presidential aspirants have brought in entertainers (or have sung and danced themselves) to engage evacuees to stay in temporary shelters until it is absolutely safe for them to return to their homes near Mayon Volcano.
Albay Representative Joey Salceda believes entertaining evacuees is a step towards “zero casualty” as Mayon Volcano erupts anew.
That’s why in the last few weeks, singers, dancers and game show clowns have accompanied philanthropists in distributing relief goods there. The goal is to fight boredom as this might become a reason for Mayon residents to return to their homes.
It’s almost painfully funny that death is not reason enough for them to stay away from that smoking volcano.
Indeed where the culture of safety is absent, the people welcome misfortune… with unbelievably open arms.
