CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Cebu's biggest business group, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), is appealing to authorities to be more prudent and considerate in imposing vessel grounding orders in events of accidents so that the flow of good and services from Cebu to other island provinces is not hampered.

CCCI President Samuel Chioson said the grounding of inter-island vessels has a major effect on the economy as the regular transport of goods and services to nearby islands will suddenly be cut, leaving products rotting in sea ports.

Chioson expressed the sentiments of the business group, particularly in its reaction to the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina)’s practice of grounding all the vessels of a certain shipping company when one of the vessels of the company gets involved in an accident or encounter trouble at sea.

“Marina always implements the ground order to conduct thorough inspection to determine the sea-worthiness of the company's vessels,” Chioson said, in a talk with local media here. “But perhaps we may suggest that the inspection of a company’s vessel be done one by one without having to ground all of its fleet. We would like to appeal to Marina officials that they should not suspend all the vessels of one company so that business will not be affected.”

Chioson also suggested that Marina personnel conduct random inspections of all vessels owned by different shipping companies even if the vessels of these companies are not involved in any sea accidents. This proactive measure, he underlined, “will be good for business and will benefit the riding public because their safety is assured.”