Philippine ports not among world’s riskiest

THE Philippines received a bit of good news recently, although in an indirect way, with the release of a report by Risk Management Services (RMS), a disaster risk consultancy. The report listed the world’s ports that are most vulnerable to natural disasters. Despite being located in a country that overall is considered one of the most vulnerable in the world, none of the ports in the Philippines were among those on the RMS list.

The study used a computer model to calculate a potential marine cargo loss from various hazards, including earthquakes, wind and storm surges. The model took into consideration the port’s location, the types of cargo handled by the port, the facilities for storing cargo and the normal “dwell time” at the port -- that is the time in hours (or days) that a shipment would normally wait at the port before being loaded onto a ship, or being picked up and taken away by truck or train after being unloaded.