Administrative Order No. 95




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ Administrative Order No. 95, May 12, 1964 ] ON THE MATTER OF THE MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE FIASCO OF 1962. This refers to the Muslim pilgrimage in 1962 in which the foreign vessel SS Taipooan, overloaded with Philippine pilgrims to Mecca, was detained in Singapore and refused clearance to proceed to Mecca, leaving the pilgrims stranded in Singapore. The Department of Justice was requested to investigate the matter to ascertain the cause or causes which let to the overloading of the vessel and to submit recommendations with the end in view of preventing future occurrences, of similar nature. On March 16, 1962, following the change of administration, the Presidential, Pilgrimage Committee created by Administrative Order No. 318, dated February 16, 1960, met in connection with the pilgrimage for that year. The next day, March 17, interested parties were required by Commissioner on Integration Gabriel Dunuan, a committee member and secretary, to submit offers for the transportation of pilgrims to Mecca. Of the offers made, that of Governor Ali Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte being the lowest, at P500 each passenger, was accepted by the committee. The award was made without inspection of the vessel which was to carry the pilgrims, nor was its identity disclosed to the committee so that it could check, on the representations made by the offeror. It was not known in what capacity, whether as ship agent or as charterer, the governor was acting. Evidently the committee relied on his assurances to comply with maritime, customs, and health regulations and thought of the low fare offered by him. The award had to be made as soon as possible in view of the little time left for the religious journey. As a result of the award to Governor Dimaporo of the pilgrimage contract, the SS Taipooan, a Hongkong vessel, proceeded to Zamboanga, arriving there on April 4, 1962. About 70 to 150 passengers, including children, boarded the vessel which sailed for Jolo the next day. Before the boat could berth thereat, passengers began climbing aboard through the ropes thrown from the wharf. A human flood invaded the ship. No authorities dared control the impact of passengers. Some 320 to 400 passengers boarded in Jolo, making the total number passengers therein from 390 to 550 when the vessel left Jolo for Zamboanga on April 6. Another 400 to 500 persons boarded the ship, so that there were around 1,000 passengers on board when it sailed for Parang on April 9, where a large number of passengers again invaded the ship. From Parang the boat returned to Zamboanga. Passengers were made to disembark at the Zamboanga wharf on April 14 around 9 p.m. for a final check. They were told that the ships capacity was only 800 passengers. Some sort of order was restored prior to the departure of the ship when customs officers aided by the local PC garrison helped in checking the passengers papers and documents. The customs list issued prior to the departure of the ship showed that there were 812 passengers. Judged by the occurrences at Jolo and Parang, a large number of passengers must have slipped on board the ship without the proper clearances, IDs, and customs, checks. The ship left Zamboanga on April 15. Normally the ‘ captain would not have sailed, but decided to do so because of the tense situation which might worsen if he delayed the sailing further. He had to lift the gangplank even with people on it. While the vessel was already proceeding toward Basilan, numerous launches and small boats whose occupants were still madly attempting to board the vessel were in tow. Later the ship slowed down at San Ramon where about 300 passengers boarded it. After proceeding on its way, the ship reversed course for Zamboanga and anchored between Zamboanga wharf and the island of Sta. Cruz where more passengers boarded. About 10 a.m. on April 15 the captain sent a cable to Singapore requesting that his ship be surveyed, since he was obliged to break out of Zamboanga in the face of an uncontrollable mob violence. The ship was later met by a British frigate and escorted to Singapore where the passengers were made to disembark and an actual count of them was made. The count showed that there were 1,913 passengers, although it had only an allowable capacity of 736 passengers. In other words, the vessel was grossly overloaded by 1,177 passengers mostly Maranaws, the rest from Jolo, Basilan City, and Zamboanga. The pilgrims were stranded in Singapore, as the authorities thereof cancelled the passenger license of the vessel. As a result of the pilgrimage fiasco, the Government of Singapore filed a claim equivalent to P82,890.22 for expenses incurred for the pilgrims during their stay in Singapore while the Philippine Navy claimed P89,224.93 for expenses in ferrying the passengers to the Philippines. The Secretary of Justice stated that “the Presidential Muslim Pilgrimage Committee is the authority specifically entrusted with the duty of supervising annual Muslim pilgrimages.” During the pilgrimage in question, the chairman of the committee was Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez. The Secretary of Justice made the following findings: “The Committee made the award in favor of Governor Ali Dimaporo without even knowing in what capacity he was acting, that is, whether as ship agent or as charterer, and without requiring him to produce his authority to commit the vessel for the required purpose. Indeed, the award was made without ascertaining the identity of the vessel. (Please see Minutes of the meetings held by the Committee at the Department of Foreign Affairs on March 16, 20 and 21, 1962; ‘Report on the terms offered by the contending promoters for the Muslim Pilgrimage dated March 20, 1962 of Commissioner Dunuan and Comparative Chart, entitled ‘Comparative Offers of Prospective Charterers for Muslim Pilgrims.) Also, the Committee failed to prescribe a maximum passenger limit and to exact stricter guarantees to assure compliance with the conditions of the award. (Please see Minutes of the meeting of the Committee, March 21, 1962, Performance Bond, and Certification dated March 23, 1962 of Governor Dimaporo, attached to the Performance Bond.)” The Secretary of Justice has recommended that all subsequent pilgrimages should be planned carefully and well ahead of time by the pilgrimage committee and the actual solicitation of passengers be made by the same committee which shall take charge of obtaining passports and visas for the passengers, as well as the taking care of their actual transportation. Towards this end, the Secretary has suggested that the passports and IDs should be retained until the passengers have finally boarded the ship; that at every port where the vessel will stop to pick passengers, a representative of the committee should have a list of the passengers from the place; and that as soon as the name of a passenger is called, he will then be handed his papers and allowed to board the ship.1aшphi1 From a careful study of the matter, it is believed that the pilgrimage committee was somehow remiss in the discharge of its duties in the sense that the proper officials who took part in the negotiations or deliberations for the transportation of the pilgrims to Mecca seemed to have failed to observe due safeguards and impose sufficient guarantees in the award and execution of the contract, including the fixing of maximum passengers, and left a lot to the representations and assurances of the offeror. In favor of the committee, it may be said that it was racing against time and had to make a hurried decision, as the date of the religious trip was close at hand and it was dealing with a responsible public official who had experience in ferrying passengers and who filed a performance bond of P150,000 relieving the government of any expense in the pilgrimage and securing it against any claim or expense that might be charged or incurred by it in connection with the pilgrimage. On the whole, the responsibility for negligence for the pilgrimage fiasco, which was due to the overloading of the vessel, was attributable in large measure to the behavior of many of the pasesngers and, with respect to the Pilgrimage Committee, should be laid on the member who actively handled the matter on behalf of the committee, Commissioner on Integration Gabriel Dunuan, not in his official capacity but as a leader of the cultural minorities, as well as to Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez as chairman of the committee, who must necessarily answer for negligence in connection with the choice of the awardee of the pilgrimage contract and in practically leaving the whole affair of such magnitude and importance to the members of the committee. A new committee has been created to handle the pilgrimages in the future. Done in the City of Manila, this 12th day of May, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-four. (Sgd.) DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL President of the Philippines By the President: (Sgd.) CALIXTO O. ZALDIVAR Acting Executive Secretary The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation