In the wake of the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy, a turf war has erupted in Malacañang. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez proposed a Palace investigation, with the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and the Coast Guard excluded from participating in the investigation. Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, whose portfolio includes Marina, objected, saying the investigation should be undertaken by his department. The possibility that the tragedy involved culpable behavior on the part of subordinate agencies, he said, doesn?t mean there will be a whitewash.

Mendoza is correct as far as insisting his department gets first crack at investigating the sinking of the Sulpicio Lines vessel. The rule of law?that rhetorical fetish so beloved by the present dispensation?requires the law to be applied inexorably, but only after a fair and balanced process according to established procedures. This latest sea tragedy requires an investigation by a Special Board of Maritime Inquiry called by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC).

Congressional oversight will, in turn, provide a check and balance over the efforts of the DoTC. The point man here, since Marina and the Coast Guard are both under the purview of his department, is Mendoza. He has immediate command responsibility, and it is appropriate to give him the opportunity to exercise the duties of his office, and then, for Congress to grill him.

Public fury has erupted (egged on by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) against the Coast Guard over the Sulpicio Lines vessel embarking on its fatal voyage when rival lines (such as SuperFerry and Negros Navigation) didn?t allow their ships to sail. The best that the Coast Guard can say by way of an explanation is to point to a loophole in regulations.

There must be hell to pay as far as the Coast Guard is concerned, but it isn?t the only agency that should be in the dock, legally speaking. Consider that it wasn?t the Coast Guard, but Marina, that ordered all of Sulpicio Lines? vessels confined to port. Since a memorandum of agreement exists between the two agencies, this requires a thorough review. The Coast Guard may have responsibility without the power of enforcement vis-à-vis Marina. Or vice-versa. In truth, the mandate of Marina is so broad that it intrudes and overlaps the powers of older agencies, such as the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard?s five-pronged mission, including determining the seaworthiness of vessels, suggests that its specific culpability lies in allowing a vessel to sail with engines that later conked out, leaving it at the mercy of a storm. To be sure, the President?s instincts in taking the Coast Guard to task for allowing Princess of the Stars to sail may be correct.

It will be necessary?in fact it is long overdue, and so Congress must assume political accountability for its inaction in this regard?for the legislature to review the legal framework for the maritime industry. A comprehensive review of the maritime industry was forcefully proposed as recently as the sinking of the MV Solar off Guimaras Island, but nothing happened.

A dizzying number of government agencies are involved, in one way or another, in the administration of maritime matters: the Coast Guard and Marina under the DoTC; the Philippine Ports Authority; the Maritime Training Council; the National Maritime Safety Coordinating Council; even the Philippine National Police, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey Department of the National Mapping Research and Information Agency and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

There are 38 international maritime conventions and treaties, and yet the Philippines has ratified only 11 of them. Reason aplenty for the President to call Congress to emergency session?except that a quarter of the House membership is with her in the United States.

But the public already assumes nothing will really happen. Because all the passengers were little people, and the value of such people has already been quantified, as Sulpicio Lines revealed. A life, for maritime inter-island insurance purposes, is worth P200,000. This is the fund that will enable Sulpicio Lines to tie things up in court, or pay off victims? families. It is the reason the congressional call to revoke the company?s franchise is timely and just, but it is also the reason chances are slim that it will take place. Time is the best ally of impunity, political or corporate.