As oil spill hits 4 provinces, affects 19,000 families, causes nausea
Experts and coast guards from other countries will meet with officials of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Monday (March 13) to discuss how to assist the country in addressing the oil spill in Oriental Mindoro, said to be the biggest in recent years and threatening to affect 20,000 hectares of coral reefs and 9,900 hectares of mangroves.
PCG Commandant Admiral Artemio Abu said a team from Japan arrived Friday, while Manila has already sent a formal request for help to the United States as it struggles to contain and clean up the oil spill almost two weeks after M/T Princess Empress, which was carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, sank off the coast of Naujan on Feb. 28.
The vessel is believed to be about 400 metres below the waves, but the Philippines does not have the capability to reach the wreckage and remove the oil, Abu said.
The number of families affected by the oil spill has also almost doubled at 19,000 from an initial estimate of 10,000, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Saturday.
“The new tally of Governor Humerlito Dolor is 19,000 affected families on the provincial level,” Gatchalian said as the DSWD started giving food packs to affected families.
Affected fishermen will also be given aid through a cash-for-work program for the cleanup of the oil spill. They will be paid minimum wage for 15 days, with payout every five days, but the program may be extended even beyond 15 days, Gatchalian said.
Dozens of people have fallen ill in Oriental Mindoro after oil washed up on their shores, the provincial government said earlier this week.
The Department of Health said vulnerable groups – those who live within 100 meters (of the shore), the elderly and those with respiratory problems – have to be relocated to safer areas. Those within 100 meters should also use industrial masks.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte asked the Environment department to come up with a risk management strategy to contain the environmental, economic and health impacts of the oil spill – which he said was “believed to be the biggest in recent years” – in five or six provinces.
Traces of oil have already been found in Taytay, Palawan, some 295 kilometers away from Naujan.
Depending on its trajectory, the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) said in an earlier forecast that the smudge leaked by the sunken tanker might affect about 20,000 hectares of coral reefs; 9,900 hectares of mangroves; and 6,000 hectares of seagrass in Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Antique and Palawan.
