Interpol to spend P900T
By Marian Z. Codilla, Carine M. Asutilla
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 09:32:00 08/02/2008
The International Police (Interpol) will spend P900,000 for the equipment to operate a mobile morgue that is scheduled to arrive in Cebu City on Monday.
The question of who would pay for the equipment has been kicked around from City Hall to Malacańang.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama said Interpol decided to use its own resources since the mobile morgue, which would help Interpol identify the fatalities of the MV Princess of the Stars, would arrive soon.
Interpol earlier asked the Cebu City government to spend P900,000 for stainless steel chairs, tables, air conditioners and other equipment but Mayor Tomas Osmeńa refused, saying Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) should shoulder the expense.
A request for aid from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) did not work out.
Rama earlier said SLI was busy spending for the claims of relatives of passengers and crew, as well as to refloat the Princess of the Stars.
Rama apologized to Interpol for the red tape and delays in release of financial assistance.
Interpol, which earlier donated DNA kits, will use the mobile morgue in Cebu City to identify bodies that remain trapped in the Princess of the Stars. The bodies will be recovered once the vessel is refloated.
Meanwhile, ten more employees of SLI were laid off yesterday, bringing to 238 the total number of company seamen left jobless with the grounding of SLI’s vessels.
The ten were assigned to the mess hall of the MV Filipina Princess.
Rama promised to help the workers and ask the City Council to allocate financial aid for them, said Joy Lim, information officer of the Associated Labor Unions -Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).
While the union said it was grateful that many sectors were finding ways to help SLI’s former employees, ALU-TUCP asked the relatives of crew members of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars not to collect the insurance money offered by the company.
The labor group said the company should drop the amount stated in its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with SLI management and offer a higher amount to those who lost loved ones who worked on board the Princess of the Stars.
ALU-TUCP said that while relatives of passengers receive at least P200,000 as from SLI, relatives of crewmembers receive upwards of P40,000, depending on the rank and length of service of the deceased crew member.
Lim said death benefits for relatives of the 20 officers of the Princess of the Stars can reach more than P200,000.
But for relatives of the 80 crew members, the amount is much lower since the crewmen are low-ranking and served for only about three years.
“The amount would be too little compared to the service they rendered to the company. The families deserve to get more, considering what they lost,” Lim said.
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