SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines -- Three days after she went to Romblon to join prayers for the hundreds dead and missing from the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went here to be the “godmother” of the container vessel MV Argolikos, the first ship that the Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Philippines Inc. built in its shipyard on Subic Bay.

After a short speech, Arroyo brought down a small wooden axe that cut a cord to the MV Argolikos, signaling that it was ready to sail.

“I name this vessel Argolikos. May God bless this vessel and all who sail on her,” Arroyo said from the makeshift stage across the ship. Then the ship boisterously blew loud its fog horn amid the flurry of hundreds of released balloons.

“This very first ship that sails out of Hanjin shipyard, the largest ship ever built in the Philippines, MV Argolikos, is a marvelous showcase of sound engineering and design completed six months ahead of schedule, and it’s a container carrier all of 41,000 tons. It brings pride to its owner. It brings pride to its creator. It brings pride to us as the host of its creation,” she said in her speech.

Thrice, she praised Filipino workers, earning the loudest applause from them when she remarked: “It is a display of our countrymen’s skills and work ethics. You are not only skilled, you’re also hardworking and caring.”

She congratulated HHIC-Philippines for the “milestone achievement in shipbuilding.”

She also commended the Greek firm, Dioryx Maritime Corp., which commissioned the company to build six ships—the first batch that HHIC Philippines will roll out until 2009—worth some $1.2 billion.

Two generations of Dioryx’s owners, Nikolas Papadimitriou and his son, the current chair, Dimitri, were on scene to thank HHIC Philippines and Arroyo.

Dimitri Papadimitriou said the occasion was part of the modernization program of his family’s fleet of ships.

“Hanjin, after building a cutting-edge shipyard in Subic in three years, was able to produce the first state-of-the-art ship in the country and is now prepared to take its maiden voyage,” he said. Tonette Orejas and Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon