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
As seen from the case studies given above, some ferry captains seem to be willing to take the risk of going out in chancy weather, while others get caught out by sudden storms that blow up before their ships can change course. One strategy is to improve weather detection and dissemination to have accurate information about when typhoons are coming. In addition, it may be possible to remove the disincentives that dissuade captains from returning to port when the weather turns bad, such as docking fees. These strategies will be discussed at the Technology and Ferry Safety Conference being convened by the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association in New York City in April 2014. Cargo loads and overcrowding It is easy to understand the temptation to take on more cargo and passengers than recommended for a vessel’s size, since larger loads and more fares per trip mean a direct increase in profits. Without direct government regulation and heavy enforcement, it is hardly likely that ferry operators will end the risky practice of overloading on their own. Instead, would it be possible to alert passengers to the dangers of overcrowding, and encourage them to put the pressure on operators? A public interest advertising campaign about how to recognize unsafe conditions on ferries, along with the establishment of a hotline where passengers can leave tips about unsafe cargoes and overloaded ferries, could prove a productive and cost-effective way to combat this problem. Another concern with the transport of large cargoes on passenger vessels is the risk that companies will allow hazardous—and even downright lethal—loads into vessels shared with people. One example of this is the MV Maria Carmela accident, in which a large cargo of copra may have been the source of the fire that killed 47 people. Copra is so flammable that it is included in class 4.2 of the International Maritime Dangerous
mentioned above, crewmembers failed to show passengers a brief safety video and did not have a complete passenger manifest. Immediately after the accident other crewmen in the operator’s fleet failed a surprise test, and were ordered to undergo retraining. In addition, passengers have been known to contribute to overcrowding or overbalancing a vessel, as for example the Indonesian ferry passengers who climbed onto the roof of their vessel to get a stronger cellphone signal, capsizing it. The Worldwide Ferry Safety Association is combating this lack of information by developing training materials for crew and passenger information resources. Regulatory loopholes Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ill-fated Princess of the Stars, is one of the most notorious ferry operators in the Philippines Ro-Ro system. Along with the Princess of the Stars, it owned the Doña Paz, which sank in 1987, and the Doña Marylin, which sank in 1988. The Doña Paz accident still ranks as the world’s worst maritime disaster in peacetime, with over 4,300 dead. After the Princess of the Stars accident in 2008, MARINA ordered Sulpicio to cease operations. However, within a year Sulpicio had as the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation, and the name change allowed the company to operate as normal. It is imperative that such regulatory loopholes be closed if ferry operators are to be held accountable for the safety of their vessels. Summary Although the Philippines has a long way to go to ensure the safety and security of its millions of ferry passengers, the information and recommendations included here are designed to highlight high-priority safety issues so that personnel and resources can be targeted there. The most urgent issues identified by this report are as following: