IF relatives of the victims of the SS Norway explosion come out to be recognized, they could move on where their dead have left off and live the good life that their departed had toiled for.

The memory of what happened five years ago leaps back to my mind as I write today: SS Norway, a giant cruise steamship of Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) with 2,000-plus passengers, had just moored at the pier of Miami, Florida at dawn of May 25, 2003 after a week-long Caribbean cruise when one of its boilers containing 20 tons of water ruptured and exploded, scalding to death eight crew members and wounding 17 others. Seven of the eight fatalities, and 14 of the 17 injured, were Filipinos.

I am writing about this in memory of a provincemate who was among the dead, Rene Villanueva of Culasi, Antique. Since I have never known the guy in person, why am I reminiscing the accident that happened five years ago?

The reason is because I feel that Villanueva’s heirs – his family (if he was married) or parents and siblings — have not availed themselves of death benefits due them. If I correctly recall what I have read in the papers, the bereaved survivors of the dead Filipino seamen have been settled with different amounts ranging from US $250,000 to $500,000.00.

They could demand much higher compensation. This was the message related to me very recently by an Antiquena friend, Nelly Armonio Nobleza. As West Visayan representative of famous Manila-based admiralty lawyer Atty. Pedro Linsangan, she is looking for somebody who could take her to Noel’s survivors in Culasi, Antique.

Atty. Linsangan, she told me, could do something for Noel’s survivors because he is the authorized Filipino link of famous American lawyer Atty. Luis Perez. It was Perez, she enthused, who had represented the only non-Filipino fatality, a Jamaican, of the SS Norway accident in a negotiated settlement that prompted the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) in Miami to pay the victim’s family US $2-million, including attorney’s fees.

Anyway, after that chance meeting with Nelly, I surfed the Internet for the latest on the SS Norway accident and read this lead of a news item in the May 3, 2008 issue of the Miami Herald:

“Five years after the deadliest cruise industry accident in more than a decade, Norwegian Cruise Line has agreed to plead guilty to criminal negligence in the SS Norway explosion.

“The U.S. attorney’s office said Norwegian agreed to plead guilty to the criminal charge, which alleges the cruise line operated the vessel in a grossly negligent manner that endangered the lives, limbs and property of the persons on board.”

This admission of guilt could be a strong signal for the relatives of the victims to pursue a criminal case in Miami.

I see no harm for the family of victim Rene Villanueva to reach for the helping hand of Nelly Nobleza. Even in death, Rene may yet fulfill his dream of a good future for his loved ones.

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It has been four years since 2004 when the Wallace Report revealed that, due to poverty, the rate of college dropouts had reached a staggering all-time high of 73 percent. UNESCO, on the other hand, places it at 79%. Regardless of which is more accurate, it’s catastrophic!

Thankfully, Secretary Augusto Syjuco of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has found a way out of this woe through the Ladderized Education Program (LEP) – the system that allows interface between technical-vocational and higher educations.

Under this program, for instance, a poor student wishing to take up a four-year course in BS-Information Technology may initially avail himself of TESDA scholarship in Computer Hardware Servicing, which is embedded in the course. This would enable him to land a job and support himself through the entire course.

***

When GMA announced in her SONA the availability of P3-billion for anti-graft and corruption drive kuno, those who clapped the most were the traditional corrupt politicians.

They know it’s for them, too.

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