Title: Cartoonia and The Dona Paz Incident of 1987
Date: June 12, 2009
Author: Melty Q Melromarc
Type: Historical Account
Summary: the historical account on Cartoonian handaling of the Dona Paz
Cartoonia and the Dona Paz Incident of 1987
It was eight years since the Philippine Islands have been officially annexed as a territory of Cartoonia durning Cartoonia’s new imperial era. It was 1987, the year of economic change and rapid technological progress in Cartoonia. Homer Simpson was serving as Chancellor for Cartoon House alongside Attorney General Loud Kiddington. Rachel Moore, the former Secretary of Child Safety was serving as the Governor General of the Cartoon colony of the Philippine Islands. It was Cartoonia’s era of prosperity, especially for the other imperial territories it had acquired in the past three decades since independence. For the Philippines however, things were about to change.
Under Cartoon Imperial rule, the companies of the Philippine Islands we’re still allowed to operate with little or no Government interference. With rising Cartoon trade and tourism, they were doing fairly well, especially the Sulpicio Lines company, who have been seeing a profit from growing tourism. A now Cartoon owned shipping company, but this was not under Cartoon federal jurisdiction. They were free to operate as they please. Boy! Was this a mistake on Cartoonia’s part. This under regulation led to the incident that is known as the Dona Paz, or the incident that broke Cartoonia’s trust with the current Co-rule of The imperial government and the local government all together.
The Dona Paz was a Japanese ferry originally the Himeyuri Maru in the 1960s. In 1975, Sulpicio Lines purchased the ferry, amidst the Cartoon-Filipino War, naming her the Don Sulpicio. After the war, it was allowed to operate on it’s own around the island. Cartoonia May not have interfered in business practices, but it kept a close eye on the waters with the Cartoon Navy and The Cartoon Imperial Coast Guard. This ferry has traveled safely and reliably around the island, granted one incident when it caught on fire in 1979, but that was a minor mishap on it’s record, she was later renamed the The Dona Paz, and became one of the finest ferries on the line connecting the many islands of the archipelago, transporting big names onboard, including Supreme Leader Chad Dickson and his sons, Jimmy Kudo and Shô on an expedition in 1981, Energy tycoonist Charles Montgomery Burns, and Jones-Williams Ocean Liner President Alfred F Jones. Even Governor General Rachel Moore traveled on this ship. It was the traveling hotel for many visiting Cartoonians
Times have changed however, and the state of the Dona Paz deteriorated and the once symbol of Cartoon-Filipino unity, became a symbol of the stubbornness of the Filipino people. The ship was now only used as ferry services between the islands and would usually be overcrowded. Unlike the ferries and liners of mainland Cartoonia, there were no safety regulations stated by the shipping companies. Their reputation in the Cartoon Imperial economy was set as one of the most dangerous investment to make. Before the Dona Paz, two other incidents occurred that made Cartoon investors iffy on investing. Eventually Cartoon tourists stopped going on these ferries altogether, preferring Cartoon ran airplanes that traveled around the islands. This led to December 20 of 1987.
The Christmas season was a busy time for the Transportation industry. Cartoonians were flying home for the holiday season, and so were the Filipinos. The Dona Paz was scheduled en route from Tacloban to Manila, and again, the ship overcrowded itself with non registered passengers. The Cartoon Imperial Coast Guard had set up communication lines to make sure that Coast Guard ships are alerted of disasters and shipwrecks. However, the Dona Paz lost, or probably turned off radio connections leaving the CICG completely in the dark. At around 10:30, tragedy strikes when an oil tanker, the MT Vector, collided with the Dona Paz which ignited the tanker’s 1,050,000 litres of oil products causing a sea fire spreading to both ships. The crew of both ships were already dead when the ships collided. The passengers of the Dona Paz were now trapped in fire and shark infested waters. The CICG were still in the dark on what’s going on with a blip representing the Vector just disappears from their radar in the dark, which led to concern with the then current commander of the Filipino CICG, Commodore Melty Q Melromarc.
The sea caught on fire which got the attention of a passing merchant freighter, from the Imperial Shipping Company. The Imperial Sousa under the command of Captain Seymour Skinner, a member of the naval reserve. He spotted a light and immediately started to chart a course to the light. By then, the ship capsized and all of her passengers have already died or are trying to stay alive. The Imperial Sousa stopped so that they won’t get caught on fire. At this time, Cartoon merchant mariners started to carry booms on ships to answer emergencies of oil spills across the empire. Lifeboats have launched to deploy these booms before they can use anti-oil techniques, while Captain Skinner radios the CICG.
Here is a transcript of the radio, declassified by the CICG Radio And Communications Commission.
SKINNER: This is The Imperial Sousa. This is The Imperial Sousa. Do I have an interception around here… Hello!... Hello!
MELROMARC: This is Commodore Melromarc of The Cartoon Imperial Coast Guard. We hear you loud and clear captain.
SKINNER: Commodore. There appears to be a situation going on in the middle of Tablas Strait. There is a ring of fire, I repeat a ring of fire.
MELROMARC: Ring of fire?
SKINNER: That’s right. From our findings, an oil tanker has collided with a passenger ferry. Many passengers are moaning in pain. We are doing the best we can to help.
MELROMARC: Send us your coordinates.
SKINNER: About 12°24′54″N/121°43′32″E.
MELROMARC: I have sent ships to the area. Help will be on the way. Just continue to help those people.
SKINNER: Will do.
By 2:30 in the morning, the ship went completely under. Many of her passengers were clinging on to suitcases. Many were already dead, their charred bodies floating on the waters. The Imperial Sousa had water hoses on board for fire emergencies like this and started to fight the fire. The crew went on to lifeboats and tried to rescue as many people as they could, but the fire was overwhelming for the crew, they could only get two at a time. In total, only 24 of the 3000 to 4000 passengers survived, while the rest perished. The CICG arrived but it was too late. By daylight, the sea layer silent, with floating dead bodies everywhere. CICG ships, passing ferries and cargo ships, as well as village fishing boats retrieved the dead bodies for the rest of the day.
This incident sparked outrage among both the Filipinos and Cartoonians. Filipinos because of the lives lost and Cartoonians because of how disorganized and ineffective the rescue was. An investigation was to be held on Sulpicio Lines. Before that, on December 28, 1987, Governor General Rachel Moore awarded Captain Skinner and the rest of the crew of the Imperial Sousa the coveted Imperial Sakura for bravery for his actions that night. She then asked Supreme Leader Chad Dickson, who put her in office, to resign her position, Commodore Melty Q Melromarc did the same after being handed the Imperial Sakura as well. Following that, Chad installed Stan Smith as the Governor General who took heed and charge of the Inquiry.
On January 3, 1988, the official Dona Paz inquiry began. Governor General Stan Smith, along with three other prominent politicians conducted moderation during the inquiry. They were Matthew Williams, the president of Jones-Williams Ocean Liner company, Charity Bazaar, the Gran-Admiral of The Cartoon Navy, and Kagura Mikazuchi, the director of the Imperial Board of Maritime and Oceanography Regulations. Both representatives of Sulpico Lines and the owners of the Vector, Caltex Philippines, were both present. To cut short, it has been revealed that the Dona Paz was overbooked and severely crowded. Both captains of the ships were away from duty, but the crew of the Dona Paz were partying, only leaving an apprentice member on the bridge. The Vector in a later inquiry was found to be operating without a proper license.
In the end, the inquiry found both the Sulpico lines and Caltex Philippines responsible for the incident and were charged with up to $3,000,000 in reparations. Since these companies were not under Cartoon Imperial jurisdiction, further punishment would be handled by the companies themselves which ended up not doing anything. In March of 1988, Cartoon House passed legislation nationalizing all companies across her territories in an act called the Dona Paz Resolution of 1988. All companies are now under the jurisdiction of the Cartoon government, meaning that harsh rules and regulations would be placed. Free market trade was always on top of Cartoonia’s imperial priorities, but ever since that fateful night that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Cartoonia would start to look at the faults of this system and create legislation to regulate and secure people’s safety so this would never happen again.
The Sulpico Lines could not keep up with these regulations and in 1991, sold off their assets and went bankrupt. The Jones-Williams Ocean Liners would purchase them and would operate ferries that are well maintained and regulated.