The 63-ton motor launch Piary, which sank off western Palawan island on Sunday, would not have been allowed to sail if there were any economically viable alternatives, coastguard chief Commodore Arthur Gosingan said.
Outside the primary ports served by major domestic ferry and cargo shipping lines, wooden vessels, including outsize outrigger canoes, are the only means of transport between points in the central and southern Philippines, he added.
"Wood is the only means of transport from one island to another in many areas," Gosingan said on dzBB radio.
These vessels make up "almost 80-90 percent" of the domestic fleet, he added. "The transport of resources from one place to another would stop" were they to be taken off abruptly, he said.
The majority of the population of the Philippines live on the main island of Luzon, but the rest are scattered among several hundred of the Southeast Asian country’s 7,106 other islands.
The Piary’s bow was holed by huge waves, sinking the ferry. Twenty of the vessel’s 75 passengers and crew were rescued, but the rest were still missing 48 hours later.
Following a series of deadly maritime disasters involving wooden-hulled vessels over the past three years, President Arroyo ordered the Maritime Industry Authority to effect fleet modernization with a gradual phase-out of the rickety wooden hulls.
The government also barred these types of vessels from sailing at night, and ordered that ships that reach a certain number of years in service be retired.
Popular opposition from commuters and vessel operators has, however, forced the government to re-draft the implementing guidelines, Gosingan said.
In the Philippines, foreign vessels are barred from transporting people or cargo on domestic routes and Gosingan said there was scant capital or inclination to invest in vessels with fiberglass or metal hulls.
"It has to be gradual phase-out so the economy will not be affected," he said.
In the meantime, the authorities are making do with increased vessel safety inspections, he added.– AFP