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The President said that while in the US, she remained focused on domestic concerns. She added that she constantly monitored the situation particularly on the development in the search and retrieval operation for the victims of sunken ship, and to all victims of typhoon Frank (international codename Fengshen).

“Overseeing relief efforts was part of our daily action agenda. We were in constant contact with our officials on the ground, personally directing activities practically minute by minute,” she added in the statement posted on the Office of the Press Secretary’s Web site.

Following her sortie in Baler, Mrs. Arroyo said that she will fly to Iloilo province on Tuesday to meet with government officials conducting recovery operations.

According to the President’s schedule, she will president over the joint meeting of the Cabinet and the National Disaster Coordinating Council.  Later in the day, she is set to visit Aklan, the province hardest hit by the typhoon.

On Wednesday, she will visit Cebu City to personally express her condolences to the relatives and families of the victims.

PAGASA gets sued

While the President was in Baler on Monday, ship owner Sulpicio Lines Inc., meanwhile, filed a civil case against the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and two of its officials for “gross negligence and incompetence” in forecasting the path of the typhoon.

Sulpicio Lines had been blaming bad weather as the cause of the tragedy.

In the civil case, the PAGASA, as an agency, as well as its director Prisco Nilo and chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz, were sued for “gross negligence and incompetence” in forecasting the weather, particularly the projected path of the typhoon from June 20 to June 21.

Sulpicio Lines lawyer Arthur Lim said the agency first announced on the evening of June 20 that the storm was moving northwest, but at 5 a.m. of June 21 the agency announced the storm had moved westward.

In effect, Sulpicio Lines said that due to faulty weather forecasting by the national weather bureau, the ship’s captain directed the ferry towards the typhoon path.

“The point is… at the time they made the wrong forecast, PAGASA knew the actual movement of the typhoon westward, but still anounced it and broacast it as northwest, thereby deceiving the captain who plotted his own course going down south to Cebu,” Lim told ANC’s “Top Story” newscast Monday.

“PAGASA caused the vessel to sail into the jaws of death,” he added.

Not keen on defense

A government inquiry into the tragedy is underway.

During the hearing on Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard’s Board of Marine Inquiry seemed to be not convinced by Sulpicio Lines’ defense, saying that a weather forecast is just a prediction and that it is not always accurate.

Commodore Amado Romillo, member of the board, said the master of the ship should still consider the radius of the typhoon, which indicates how wide the area it would cover.

Romillo also emphasized that MV Princess of the Stars should have noted that in every forecast of PAGASA, it always says there is a possibility of a 15-degree change of direction of the weather disturbance.

Sulpicio Lines also said they only communicate with their ships through a single, side band radio, and the details of the radius of typhoon ‘Frank’ was forwarded by PAGASA only to their office in Manila, not to their ships.

Interpol to the rescue

In a related development, an Interpol team has been sent to the Philippines to help in the recovery and identification of the victims of sea tragedy.

The team arrived Sunday in Cebu at the Philippines government’s request, the agency based in the French city of Lyon said in a statement.

Hundreds of bodies are thought to remain trapped inside the 24,000-ton Princess of the Stars, which was turned upside-down on a reef off the island of Sibuyan.

Interpol’s team included experts in DNA and identifying victims of disasters, the agency said, adding that it would send more experts once the exact recovery needs are determined.