PHILIPPINES Trends and Developments Contributed by: Valeriano Del Rosario and Maria Francesca Bautista, VeraLaw
the USA has stated that any attack on a Philip - pine military vessel will be considered an attack on it. Climate Change The Philippine archipelago lies on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. Tropical cyclones, known as typhoons in Asia, spawn in the area of the central Pacific Ocean north of the equator, and once born they track westward towards the Philippines. Over the last 15 years, the strength, ferocity and destructive power of the typhoons that have struck the Philippines have increased dramatically. As a result, ships on the water are at greater risk. As an example, in December 2021, Typhoon Rai (international name), which was named Typhoon Odette in the Philippines, cut through the Philippines like a scythe sowing death and destruction. The Philippines keeps track of the count of typhoons that enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility by designating the first typhoon of the year with a name begin - ning with “A” and following the sequence of the alphabet. VeraLaw was busy during Typhoon Odette when we opened over 20 files for dam - aged/stranded vessels for yachts, tugs, barges, general cargo ships, and docks and harbour facilities. In 2023, the Philippines suffered a major oil spill off the island of Mindoro, with over 800,000 litres of industrial fuel spilled by the vessel “Princess Empress” during heavy weather. Again, in 2024, another oil spill occurred in Manila Bay when the tanker “Terranova” went down during the pas - sage of Typhoon Gaemi (local name Carina). The Philippines is a signatory to both the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and the 1992 Fund Conven- tion. In both instances, the flying squad of the Inter - national Tanker Owners Pollution Federation
(ITOPF) was on site almost immediately to assist with remedial measures to minimise damage and environmental degradation. It is a growing concern that climate change has been greatly affecting the severity of typhoons in the Philippines. In fact, the Asian Development Bank considers the Philippines to be the nation that is most affected by extreme weather (“ Cli- mate Change and Disaster Risk Management”, Asian Development Bank, accessed 6 Jan 2024). According to an article by Carbon Brief , the Philippines’ typhoon season has worsened due to the fact that the world has warmed by 1.3 degrees Celsius. According to them, this would translate to the country possibly expe - riencing three major typhoons to make landfall in a single month roughly once every 15 years. This is said to be 25% more frequent than in a world without climate change (Ayesha Tandon, “Record-breaking Philippines typhoon season was ‘supercharged’ by climate change”, Carbon Brief , 12 Dec 2024). With the increasing severity and frequency of typhoons due to climate change, there will likely be a corresponding increase in claims made to hull and machinery (H&M) and protection and indemnity (P&I) insurers in the foreseeable future. Future Litigation Trends The two recent oil spills mentioned above prompted inquiries concerning limitation of lia - bility under Philippine law. There are two distinct limitation regimes. One regime is specific to oil pollution under the Oil Pollution Compensa - tion Act (OPCA), which brought into force the Civil Liability and Fund Conventions. The other regime is available in case of damage to third parties, and the procedure is governed by the
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