Johan Roos, Interferry's Regulatory Affairs Director, reports that he and other members of the FerrySafe team – Dr. Neil Baird (of Baird Maritime), Edwin Pang and Nelson Dela Cruz – were extremely pleased with the feedback from individuals and organisations that accepted their invitation for one-hour interview sessions.
The team reports that close to 40 individuals – ranging from admirals and media representatives to ferry operators and entrepreneurs – took the time at their own expense to offer their views on what the Philippines has done collectively to improve its domestic ferry safety during recent years.
While these initial dialogues suggest that there aren't any silver-bullet solutions, there are strong indications that an enhanced presence of government intervention seems to have had a significant positive effect.
The next step of the project will see the team return to the Philippines before the start of summer to conduct onsite visits with ferry operators and shipyards in different regions of the country to further build its primary research database.