President Corazon Aquino described the accident as "a national tragedy of harrowing proportions...[the Filipino people's] sadness is all the more painful because the tragedy struck with the approach of Christmas".[25] Pope John Paul II, Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom conveyed their official messages of condolence.[26]

Sulpicio Lines announced three days after the accident that the Doña Paz was insured for ₱25 million (about US$550 thousand in 2011 dollars), and it was willing to indemnify the survivors the amount of ₱20 thousand (US$472 in 2011) for each victim.[27] Days later, hundreds the victims' kin staged a mass rally at Rizal Park, demanding that the ship owners likewise indemnify the families of those not listed on the manifest, as well as to give a full accounting of the missing.[14]

According to the initial investigation conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard, only one apprentice member of the crew of the Doña Paz was monitoring the bridge when the accident occurred.[28] Other officers were either drinking beer or watching television,[29] while the ship's captain was watching a movie on his Betamax.[30] Nonetheless, subsequent inquiries revealed that the Vector was operating without a license, lookout or properly qualified master.[10] The Board of Marine Inquiry eventually cleared Sulpicio Lines of fault in the accident.[13] In 1999, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled that it was the owners of the Vector who were liable to indemnify the victims of the collision.[6][13] Some of the claims pursued against either Sulpicio Lines or the owners of the Vector, such as those filed by the Cañezal family (who lost two members) and the Macasas family (who lost three members) were adjudicated by the Supreme Court, which found that even the families of victims who did not appear on the official