MANILA — The oil spill off Oriental Mindoro has reached marine diversity-rich Verde Island in Batangas, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Monday.
“Yes, confirmed po, may sightings na po tayo sa Isla Verde,” said PCG-Batangas station commander Captain Victorino Acosta told INQUIRER.net over the phone.
Acosta said that as of 7 a.m. on Monday, the oil spill affects Barangay Agapito and Santo Domingo.
PCG personnel together with volunteers and residents have since conducted clean-up in the areas, he further said.
The MT Princess Empress, which carried 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, sank on February 28 in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro after having engine trouble due to rough sea condition.
The oil spill also reached as far as the shores of Palawan, PCG said.
The University of the Philippines – Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI), in its bulletin on Saturday night (March 18), said that more oil spill is expected to reach the City of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro.
“Oil spill trajectories for March 16 to 22 show northward shift with Calapan possibly receiving most of the oil from March 20 to 22,” said the bulletin.
The UP-MSI said the latest satellite image on March 15 “shows that the oil is still leaking out of the sunken vessel (MT Princess Empress).”
“Westward currents along the coast of northern Mindoro towards the Verde Island Passage are forecasted to be more pronounced for this period. The ‘Amihan’ (north east monsoon) winds, which contained most of the oil to the coasts of Naujan and Pola in the previous weeks, are now more variable, allowing the oil to spread northwards,” the agency said.
The UP-MSI said stopping the seepage of oil from the tanker that sank Feb. 28 should be a priority “before the end of the amihan season, otherwise more critical biodiversity areas along the Verde Island Passage may be affected.”
“We need continuous monitoring along the coasts for the presence of oil to inform the models.
The public is encouraged to contribute geotagged images using a GPS camera app so that coordinates can be used as starting locations for the oil in new model forecasts,” the bulletin said. (John Eric Mendoza, Madonna Virola © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
