Flimsy Plimsoll scam
The reader said the real question is further upstream. Why was this ship sailing with a permit in the first place?
An avid follower of Nosy Tarsee has a message for Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, and it isn’t a pat on the back. The reader is talking about the MV Virgen de Peñafrancia II, the roll-on/roll-off vessel that tilted just 10 meters from the Real Port in Quezon last Friday.
All 58 passengers and crew were pulled out, thank goodness, and Dizon was quick to have the ship’s Passenger Ship Safety Certificate suspended. Early findings pointed to a mooring line that snapped amid the strong current, though investigators conceded this was not conclusive.
The reader said the real question was further upstream. Why was this ship sailing with a permit in the first place? According to the tipster, an agency under Dizon’s wing has long been complicit in a quiet scandal: the adjustment of Plimsoll marks.
For the uninitiated, the Plimsoll line, or load line, is the compulsory safety mark painted on a ship’s hull to show how deep a vessel can be safely loaded. Move the mark, and you can legally squeeze in more cargo and more passengers. The tipster claimed this happens in “many cases.”
Before registry, a vessel is supposed to undergo an inclination test, which establishes its stability. Our source alleged these tests were “almost always” monkeyed with and, in many instances, not even conducted.
The result is a fleet of what are basically flat cargo barges that get passenger decks bolted on to carry more people, then receive the dubious “tumba lobo” permits that let them sail. Top-heavy, and one strong current away from trouble.
The Nosy Tarsee disciple said there were many so-called ro-ro vessels like this out there, operating dangerously under the nose of regulators.
Nosy Tarsee can’t vouch for every claim, and investigators have yet to say what they found on this particular ship. But the Secretary has said he wants accountability when ferries misbehave. If he means it, the audit shouldn’t stop at one vessel.
Pull the inclination test records and the load line certifications, and check who signed off on them. The next ship that tilts may not be only 10 meters from the pier.