A Philippine court has granted a dismissal to the head of a shipping company prosecuted for a shipwreck that killed around 800 people in 2008, we learned from the victims' lawyer on Saturday, who appealed.
Read also Traces of extinct human species in the Philippines
The Princess of the Stars ferry capsized in June 2008 after hitting a reef near Sibuyan Island in the central Philippines during a typhoon.
Only about 50 of the approximately 850 passengers and crew survived.
Edgar Go, at the time vice-president and head of crisis management at Sulpicio Lines, the ferry operator, was prosecuted for "reckless killings".
The prosecutor accused him of having allowed the ship to go to sea despite the storm warnings issued by the meteorological services.
The ship's captain, Florencio Marimon, has also been indicted in this case, although he disappeared during the sinking and is presumed dead.
In a decision handed down on November 18, consulted by AFP, a Manila court responded favorably to a dismissal request made by Mr. Go for lack of evidence.
The prosecution appealed.
"It appears that no one is responsible"
for the tragedy, regretted the lawyer Persida Acosta, head of the public body responsible for defending the indigent before the Philippine courts, which represents the families of the victims.
"It's painful for us,"
she added, announcing that she would also appeal on Monday.
According to her, the families have been awarded 440 million pesos (7.7 million euros) in civil damages, but this sum remains unpaid, the shipping company having appealed.
Shipwrecks are common in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands linked together by often dilapidated and overloaded ferries.
Sulpicio Lines, which has since renamed itself the Philippine Span Asia Carrier, has been involved in several maritime disasters over the past decades.
In 1987, his Doña Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,300, the deadliest sinking in peacetime global maritime history.
Asked by AFP, the shipping company said on Saturday that no one was available to comment on the matter.
