MANILA — The June 21 tragedy of the sinking of the Princess of the Stars ferry in the waters off Romblon in the Philippines — with hundreds of corpses still believed trapped inside — is proof that the country is prone not only to natural calamities but to man-made ones as well. The decision to allow the vessel to sail directly into the path of Typhoon Fengshen resulted from plain and simple incompetence.

Worse still, the same shipping line has been involved in at least three other tragedies at sea in the past 11 years, including the Dona Paz disaster in 1987, which killed more than 4,000 people and was described as the world's worst maritime disaster in peacetime. That record adds even more ignominy to the sense of loss suffered by the loved ones of those who died or remain missing.

If only Philippine authorities could learn the lessons of past tragedies, this latest one might well have been averted.