Improving the Safety of the Philippines Ferry System By: Abigail Golden Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University* Study conducted for the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association** September 2014 Introduction The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago nation of some 7,000 islands covering an area of 115,000 square miles. As such, its nearly 100 million inhabitants are heavily dependent on water transportation for inter-island traffic, especially the poorer segments of the population that do not have access to the Philippines’ 85 public airports and 111 private ones. According the Asian Development Bank, 98% of the country’s domestic inter-island trade is facilitated by shipping. To meet this demand, in 2003 the Philippines government instituted a policy to promote roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) truck ferries, hoping to eliminate cargo-handling costs associated with containers and increase island connectivity. However, the ferry network still holds a very poor safety record, with Philippines’ the region of South China, Indo China, Indonesia and the Philippines recognized as the for shipping disasters by the Allianz financial services company. number one “hot spot” The region has seen losses of over 300 vessels of all types since 2001, with a correspondingly heavy toll in human life; in high profile cases, such as the 1987 sinking of the Dona Paz (4,386 lives lost), thousands of people have died after cramming onto overcrowded ferries. Since 2000 in the Philippines, there have been a total of about 1,400 casualties in a fourteen-year period, an average of 100 ferry-related fatalities a
Improving the Safety of the Philippines Ferry System By: Abigail Golden Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University* Study conducted for the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association** September 2014 Introduction The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago nation of some 7,000 islands covering an area of 115,000 square miles. As such, its nearly 100 million inhabitants are heavily dependent on water transportation for inter-island traffic, especially the poorer segments of the population that do not have access to the Philippines’ 85 public airports and 111 private ones. According the Asian Development Bank, 98% of the country’s domestic inter-island trade is facilitated by shipping. To meet this demand, in 2003 the Philippines government instituted a policy to promote roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) truck ferries, hoping to eliminate cargo-handling costs associated with containers and increase island connectivity. However, the Philippines’ ferry network still holds a very poor safety record, with the region of South China, Indo China, Indonesia and the Philippines recognized as the number one “hot spot” for shipping disasters by the Allianz financial services company. The region has seen losses of over 300 vessels of all types since 2001, with a correspondingly heavy toll in human life; in high profile cases, such as the 1987 sinking of the Dona Paz (4,386 lives lost), thousands of people have died after cramming onto overcrowded ferries. Since 2000 in the Philippines, there have been a total of about 1,400 casualties in a fourteen-year period, an average of 100 ferry-related fatalities a
Philippines%20Report%20[6].docx