By Charles Dantes
Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator Ariel Nepomuceno on Thursday said siphoning off the remaining industrial oil should be a priority to manage and prevent further damage to affected areas of a recent oil spill.
In a press conference with the National Task Force for Oil Spill, Nepomuceno added that siphoning operations usually take two months to finish and can prevent additional harm to other coastal areas.
The operations will include 7 to 10 days of evaluation, 7 days for the arrival of the machines, and 21 days for actual operations.
Nepomuceno also said that the lack of personal equipment is proving to be detrimental to the clean-up efforts.
“Wala po tayong sariling equipment, inaamin po natin ‘yan. Kaya dapat meron tayong sariling equipment, that is the lesson,” Nepomuceno said.
Nepomuceno also added that the bagging operations have been a tremendous help in slowing down the leak from the sunken vessel.
“Nakita po noong una na may 23 pinaglalabasan po ng langis, based on the recent reports from th e Coast Guard, out of 23, 11 na lang ang nilalabasan ng langis,” he added.
MV Princess Empress sank in the waters off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro last February 28, while carrying more than 800,000 industrial fuel.
As of April 20, the OCD reported more than P3.7 billion worth of damages and losses to agriculture from the incident.
Meanwhile, 103 areas in Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Antique, and Batangas have been affected by the oil spill and a total of 37,871 families or 178,306 individuals have also been affected.
