Sulpicio tightens security in Manila office - report

MANILA, Philippines - Instead of facing relatives of victims, the owner of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars tightened security at its office in Manila early Wednesday. Radio dzBB's Bernie Morales reported that added security personnel were posted at the Sulpicio offices at Pier 12 in Manila as of early Wednesday morning. No representative of Sulpicio was around to update relatives on the ongoing search, rescue and retrieval efforts. Even media was not allowed to enter the offices, the dzBB report said. Relatives of victims were left simmering outside the shipping firm's office, the report added. The silence came a day after Transportation Undersecretary Elena Bautista told Sulpicio management to be transparent with the relatives of victims and to face them. Earlier Wednesday, kin of passengers figured in another commotion at the Sulpicio Lines office in Manila as they demanded to be brought to Cebu immediately. Radio dzBB's Sam Nielsen reported that the relatives raised a howl when a Sulpicio ship arrived but did not bring any survivor or body to Manila. Levi Samuel, a spokeswoman for the relatives, said Sulpicio could at least have made arrangements for the relatives to go to Cebu to identify their loved ones. Sulpicio had agreed earlier to an arrangement where the bodies of fatalities would be brought to Cebu, and relatives ferried there to identify their loved ones. "Isama kami kung pwede ngayon, ngayon na. Kung aantayin pa namin ang NBI, limang araw simula paglubog, bulok na (They should let us go to Cebu now. If we wait for the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct autopsies and all that, it will be too late. It's already five days since the sinking, the bodies will decompose)," Samuel said. - GMANews.TV