Oil spill, other human-induced disasters, cost PH ₱5 B in 2023

The country incurred over ₱4.93 billion in human-induced damages to the agriculture sector last year due to oil spill, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

Data from the PSA showed that human-induced disasters cost the country ₱9.29 billion from January to December 2023, wherein over half or 53.1 percent of it was due to major disasters that included oil spill.

It was in 2023 that the oil tanker MT Princess Empress, carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, sunk in the rich marine-biodiverse Verde Island Passage in Mindoro.

Meanwhile, damages to infrastructure reached ₱4.31 billion, or 98.7 percent of the total damages due to minor human-induced incidents.

According to the statistics agency, there were 448 occurrences of human-induced disasters last year, mostly attributed to fire-related incidents (43.3 percent), and followed by armed-conflict incidents (20.1 percent), land incidents (14.3 percent), maritime (7.4 percent).

PSA noted that this type of disaster left the country with 100,111 affected families, 340 casualties, and 9,109 damaged houses last year.

On the other hand, the cost of natural extreme events and disasters stood at ₱24.49 billion in 2023, 17.5 percent lower than the ₱29.68 billion

recorded in the previous year.

A total of ₱1.24 billion in damages was recorded due to minor natural incidents, a 33.4 percent increase from ₱930 million in 2022.

In terms of damages, infrastructure incurred the largest damage due to these disasters reaching over ₱630 million or 50.7 percent of the total damages, and was followed by agriculture at ₱0.53 billion or 42.4 percent of the total damages, the PSA noted.

Over 208 occurrences of natural disasters were recorded last year, most of which were due to geophysical including earthquakes (37 percent), meteorological such as typhoons (29.3 percent), and hydrological, such as floods (20.7 percent).

These kinds of disasters inflicted a total of 3,474,899 families, caused 157 deaths, and damaged 365 houses, according to PSA.