The oil spill from a sunken vessel in Oriental Mindoro has reached Western Visayas, as fuel traces were found in Caluya, Antique, a report from the Philippine Coast Guard said on Saturday.
Based on the monitoring of PCG District Western Visayas, industrial fuel oil from the sinking of the MT Princess Empress has reached the coastal villages of Caluya, namely, Sitio Sabang in Barangay Tinogboc, Liwagao Island in Barangay Sibolo, and Sitio Tambak in Barangay Semirara.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources advised the people of Oriental Mindoro and neighboring provinces to brace for possible health impacts as the oil spillage has grown wider each day.
The DENR recommended coordination with the Department of Health to monitor and address the possible impact on the local communities. It proposed that affected LGUs consider instituting a cash-for-work program for the coastal cleanup, as a short-term intervention to provide temporary employment.
Residents of the affected areas have begun conducting a shoreline cleanup, the PCG said, adding that eight drums of “oily waste” were retrieved.
But the oil retrieval operation was temporarily halted because fuel fumes affected the response team.
Besides this, the PCG said about 600 residents or 150 families on Liwagao Island were also affected.
On Friday, the local government of Naujan declared a state of calamity as the livelihood of the fisherfolk had been affected by the oil spill.
Meanwhile, Congress is pushing for a supplemental budget to stave off the detrimental effects of the calamity.
Albay Representative Joey Salceda said he was confident the chamber would pass a supplemental budget for the prompt action and recovery efforts.
Salceda’s standpoint came in view of the House’s previous action, granting at least P5.4 billion in supplemental appropriations to sectors affected by the Guimaras oil spill in 2006.
“We are prepared to propose and enact a supplemental budget if it comes to that. If the President requests it, we will grant it,” the solon said.
Marine life killer
Last Tuesday, as it sailed into rough seas off Naujan, Mindoro, the MT Princess Empress sank carrying a load of 800,000 liters or 210,000 gallons of what the PCG later determined was a mixture of industrial fuel oil.
Due to the expanding oil spill, the PCG declared on Friday that all maritime activities in the waters near four towns of Oriental Mindoro were suspended.
The University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute said a total of 36,000 hectares of marine life including coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass, are in danger of devastation.
“Using the modeled oil spill trajectories, and looking at higher resolution data, we approximate that 20,000 hectares of coral reefs, 9,900 ha of mangroves, and 6,000 ha of seagrass may be affected by the oil slick in the municipalities of Oriental Mindoro,” according to the UP-PMSI.
“More than half of potentially affected reefs (11,000 ha) are found in the Cuyo group of islands,” it added.
For Oriental Mindoro, the affected marine life is in the municipalities of San Teodoro, Mansalay, Calapan City, Bulalacao, Baco, Puerto Galera, Pola, Pinamalayan, Naujan, Bongabong, Bansud, Gloria, Roxas, Magsaysay and San Jose.
Also, the UP-PMSI said marine ecosystems are in great danger in Coron, Culion, Agutaya, Cuyo, and Magsaysay in the province of Palawan, as well as in Caluya in Antique.
JING VILLAMENTE
@tribunephl_raf @tribunephl_eao