by STELLA TIROL-CADIZ

ON AN overcast Tuesday morning, the M.V. Filipina Princess raised its passenger stairway, hauled up its anchor, and glided from Manila's North Harbor on one of its twice weekly trips to Cebu.

As the green and white ship began 26 hours of sailing, few of the 1,000 passengers on board were aware of the controversy surrounding their journey. For, in the last nine months, the 191-meter-long vessel, the largest owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc., has been running on only one of two engines.

In February this year, the Philippine Coast Guard declared the liner to be unsafe for passenger travel because of the danger of breakdowns.

But in a move that has baffled many in the navy and the shipping industry, the Department of National Defense overruled the Coast Guard's decision last April, saying that the ban on the liner was issued "unjustly" and without due process. Sulpicio had earlier appealed to DND, asserting that its ship was safe.

The Coast Guard is expected to issue a second decision on the matter today. Meanwhile, over the past months, the ship has continued to carry passengers.

The controversy over the Filipina Princess highlights the continuing problems in implementing safety standards at sea in this country, five years after two major maritime disasters claimed a historic number of lives.

Ships continue to be badly maintained, dangerously ill-trained seamen are still operating vessels, and aids crucial to navigation like lighthouses remain negligible.

"Safety," says Captain Victorino Basco, former Maritime Industry Authority administrator, "is the most neglected aspect of the industry."

There have been an average of 220 maritime accidents a year from 1986 to 1990. Last year, there were 49 accidents recorded, but that figure is incomplete. Although many of the accidents involve small wooden-hull vessels, the number of major accidents is still considered alarmingly high by international standards.

The Coast Guard is responsible for ensuring safety at sea, but it continues to be hampered by pitiful funding and badly trained-and some charge, corrupt-personnel.

And when it does act, its authority appears to be weak and fragmented, raising questions on how safety standards can ever be implemented forcefully in this country.

Critics feel that allowing Filipina Princess to run is an invitation to disaster. In the last eight months, the ship, which can carry up to 3,000 passengers, has had at least six breakdowns at mid-sea, one lasting 20 hours.

This month, it also figured in a collision with an international vessel as it maneuvered its way into Manila Bay. No casualties were reported.

The issue has put the focus on Sulpicio, possibly the most controversial shipping company in the country. In 1987, one of its ships, the M.V. Doņa Paz, sank between Mindoro and Marinduque after a collision with a tanker, leaving 4,000 dead. The following year, M.V. Marilyn, also a Sulpicio vessel, capsized during a storm and resulted in the loss of about 500 lives.

Sulpicio is the second largest grossing shipping company in the country, with more than P1.3 billion in revenues. The Cebu-Manila route, which Filipina Princess plies, is the most lucrative in the business and is shared by only three companies.

The Coast Guard began to investigate Filipina Princess after letters and complaints poured in from passengers who were stranded last December and January on trips from Cebu.

A seven-man inspection team found that the ship had been depending solely on its right engine because of serious problems in the left engine's crankshaft. The part needed to repair the left engine would take several months to fabricate.

In its report, the Coast Guard noted that the remaining right engine "has been operating beyond its allowable capacity considering that the engine is currently supplying a load that is designed for two engines."

Unlike other ships that are built for one engine, the Filipina Princess is meant to run on two engines.

Commander Herby Escutin says this increases the risks of dangerous breakdowns at sea, where the ship can be prey to typhoons, bad weather and currents. Because of limitations of the Coast Guard, it may take as long as 15 hours for the agency to respond to a distress signal of a ship along the Cebu-Manila route, he says.

Officials in the shipping industry and the Philippine Navy support the Coast Guard's conclusions. "Allowing that ship to run is the height of irresponsibility," says one shipping executive. "You don't continue to use a ship when it's obviously not in good working order."

Capt. Rex Robles of the Philippine Navy says allowing a two-engine ship to run on one engine is a "no-no." He says the DND decision "appears to be a potential bureaucratic horror story."

Sulpicio vice president Eusebio Go, however, says such talk is "exaggerated" and that ships, including navy vessels, have been known to operate with one of its two engines working. He says that engines can function separately and independently from each other.

Sulpicio has presented a two-paragraph statement from its Japanese repair company stating that Filipina Princess can run on one engine.

Go also said Filipina Princess' breakdowns were minor, that breakdowns happen even on brand-new ships, and there is little risk to ships on inter-island routes.

What exactly can go wrong?

Lt. Commander Alex Pama of the Philippine Navy says a two-engine ship running on one engine faces an increased risk of breakdowns because of the strain on the remaining engine. It is also seriously handicapped in facing storms and bad weather, problems that can occur anytime during a voyage.

"You can not take evasive action during a storm because the ship is too slow," he says. And if both engines break down during bad weather, "You'll be like a tansan in the middle of the sea."

He cites the experience of navy destroyer Datu Kalantiaw, a three-engine ship tank sank after going through a storm in 1979. Only two of its engines were working.

Maneuverability may also be a problem, speculates one shipping executive after Filipina Princess collided with international vessel M.V. Unimaster in Manila Bay on Sept. 2.

The Filipina Princess, like all two-engine ships, has its engines on the right and left side of the ship. If one fails to operate, there is an imbalance, which may result in difficulty in navigation, he says. The Coast Guard is still investigating the incident.

As to the bald statement of the Japanese repair company that the Filipina Princess can continue to run on one engine, the Coast Guard and navy sources say the statement is too general.

"It just says the ship can run, but does it guarantee the safety of the passenger? Does it say it can be used for long periods without breaking down?" says Escutin.

Because the issue is safety and not defense, a shipping company official questions the "competence of the DND to intervene in this case."

In explaining the decision, a DND legal officer says the reversal was made on the basis of Sulpicio's arguments that "Sulpicio was not given due process."

On the safety issue, the DND source acknowledges "we don't have the technical expertise to decide on that."

Critics are asking why then did the DND allow the ship to sail pending a second review, when safety was the very issue in question. The DND officer shrugs that the department's naval consultant presumably approved what he described as a "rush" decision signed by Defense Secretary Renato de Villa.

Since the DND order last April for a second review, the Coast Guard has not yet issued a decision. PCG Commander Firmo Rosario, head of the special review board on Filipina Princess, says the agency has encountered delays, several traced to Sulpicio, but that the Coast Guard will definitely decide by the end of this month.

He narrates that the Coast Guard started its second hearings in April, but Sulpicio moved that the case be set aside since Filipina Princess was scheduled for repair in Japan in May.

Unfortunately, the Japanese engineers found a more serious problem that they said would take even longer to fix, Rosario says. Moreover, since the ship returned in June, Sulpicio has failed twice to send a progress report to the Coast Guard on the repairs, holding up the investigation.

In the end, the issue to be decided by the Coast Guard may be moot.

Shipping industry sources says Sulpicio appears to have been bidding for time until its newly acquired ship, Princess of the Orient, is ready to take the place of Filipina Princess in October.

Although the case of the Filipina Princess may soon be resolved, critics say the red light remains on the implementation of safety standards of the shipping industry in this country.