Tacloban City—Nedita Nonay Relagio, 66, says she is still in pain every time she attends the annual gathering to commemorate the sinking of the MV Doña Paz during a collision with the oil tanker Vector, which killed over 4,000 people, on Dec. 20, 1987.
“We have been gathering for 36 years now to commemorate, yet until now we have not gotten the justice. We are ready to die for what we are fighting for,” Relagio said.
National Geographic dubbed the ill-fated MV Doña Paz as “Asia’s Titanic”.
Relagio, who hails from Abuyog, Leyte, lost her son Ernani and father Andres during the tragedy.
While the names of Relagio’s son and father were not in the ship’s “manifest”, she maintained that she got all the proof to show that her loved ones were among the fatalities during the sinking of the vessel.
Together with other members of the Doña Paz Tragedy Claimants Association Inc., Relagio has appealed for help from President Marcos, House Speaker and Leyte First District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and other lawmakers for their alleged unpaid claims.
“I am begging for President Marcos Jr. to investigate this great injustice to us,” Relagio told Manila Standard.
Jenny Dela Cruz, another claimant, said she lost her mother, two siblings, and an aunt during the incident.
“What happened was very difficult for us because I was very young when I lost my loved ones. This is why I am also seeking justice for what happened to them,” Dela Cruz said.
Danny Clores, the president of Doña Paz Tragedy Claimants Association Inc., continued to hope that the government would give their plight attention.
“I hope our grievances will be heard, especially with President Marcos Jr., whose mother is from Tolosa, Leyte, as most of MV Doña Paz victims were Waraynon (natives of Leyte). I hope they will be given attention. Many claimants are already old,” Clores said earlier.
In a statement, Clores said the association continues to meet with its officers and legal counsel for their next action.
On Dec. 20, 2023, the association met again in Quezon City for their annual commemorative event and general assembly.
They were joined by their association vice president Benito Sacaguing and lawyer Haron Ali.
During the gathering, Ali urged the claimants to continue to hope for what they were fighting for.
On his part, Clores earlier said that he had already received his claims. He, however, said that there are still “more or less 30 percent who have yet to receive their claims” from the 3,227 on the alleged “masterlist” he said he had obtained.
A native of Barugo, Leyte, Clores lost his father and two other family members during the sinking of the Doña Paz.
According to Clores, their association was established in 2018 to help those other claimants, whom he claimed, have not yet received their payments.
Clores was 17 years old when the tragedy happened.
In 2017, heirs of the victims of the ill-fated vessel reportedly received more than P200,000 compensation from the shipper of about one million liters of gasoline and other petroleum products aboard the oil tanker that collided with the Doña Paz passenger ferry at the Tablas Strait, near Marinduque and about 175kms from Manila.
The claimants received payments in Tacloban City, Catbalogan City, and Manila in 2017, multiple media outlets reported.
Asked if there was already a closure in terms of the payment of claims of the heirs and victims of the Doña Paz after the distribution of claims in 2017, a lawyer who was reportedly involved in assisting the claimants since the 1990s answered in affirmative.
“Yes. After the distribution in 2017,” the lawyer told Manila Standard.