Press Release
July 14, 2008

ROXAS: WHERE IS MISSING GMDSS?
MARINE SAFETY EQUIPMENT COULD HAVE PREVENTED SULPICIO MISHAP

A Global Marine Distress Safety System (GMDSS) could have helped prevent sea disasters like the M/V Princess of the Stars mishap, but said equipment remains missing despite a contract for its procurement 10 years ago, Senator Mar Roxas said.

Roxas filed a Senate resolution for a probe on why the contract between the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Thomson CSF NCS-France penned in 1998 for the purchase of a GMDSS has not yet materialized.

"Isang malaking misteryo kung bakit may kontratang naaprubahan pero walang kahit isang gamit na pinakinabangan. (It remains a big mystery why a contract was approved but no useful equipment ever came out of it.)," he said, adding that this vital project and its equipment also need to be "re-floated."

"In the case of this missing GMDSS, ten years have lapsed since the contract was consummated. Had it been effectively enforced, this long string of sea tragedies could have been averted. We in the Senate will not let this grave sin of omission pass," he added.

The GMDSS is a ship distress and safety communications system designed by the International Maritime Organization and implemented in 1999. Under the GMDSS, all passenger and cargo ships over 300 gross tonnages on international voyages have to carry specific satellite and radio communications equipment for sending and receiving distress alerts, and for general communications.

The Department of Transportation and Communications launched a project for the installation of 19 GMDSS stations nationwide followed by an international competitive bidding for it in 1997. France's Thomson won, and the supply contract--bundled with a loan of 106.53 million francs from the French government at 1.5% interest maturing in 25 years--was signed in 1998.

"Did the contractor deliver on their obligations, and if so, what happened to the GMDSS? If the winning bidder failed to comply, why didn't the DOTC run after them? On the finance side, are we still paying off a foreign loan for an invisible GMDSS?" Roxas said, noting a 2006 Commission on Audit report saying the contractor abandoned the project in 2000 "due to a billing dispute."

The Liberal Party President said compared to the $330-million ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project and the $460-million Cyber-Ed project, the GMDSS had more relevance and urgency to the lives of the people.

"Rather than a multi-million loan for an experimental intercom facility, the government should have long prioritized the installation of distress systems to promote sea safety and disaster prevention," Roxas stressed.

Roxas earlier filed a resolution calling for an inquiry into the discovery of 10 tons of hazardous pesticide in M/V Princess of the Stars' cargo and the insufficient insurance coverage of the ship owned by Sulpicio Lines. These resolutions and his new bill on marine pollution have been filed in order to strengthen maritime safety.

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