Marcos urged to take charge of Oriental Mindoro oil spill response
MANILA, Philippines — The Protect Verde Island Passage coalition on Friday called on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to personally order government agencies to "direct all resources" to contain an oil spill from a tanker that sank off Oriental Mindoro last week.
Citing reports from the disaster management office of Calapan City, Protect VIP said traces of oil have been seen in Barangay Navotas. Calapan City is a major economic center in Mimaropa.
"The only way to achieve the president's hope to clean up the oil spill in four months is to compel government agencies to direct all resources for containment," Fr. Edwin Gariguez, Protect VIP Convenor, said.
"We are also in support of the consensus raised during the Senate hearing for the need to assign an oil spill response chief. Mr. President, the VIP is a crucial contributor to the Philippine economy. You must move now," he also said.
Gariguez said that civil society groups have been trying to help community response to the oil spill, but that they "can only do so much."
He said Marcos should take charge of oil spill response. "We do not want the oil response to suffer the same fate of the sunken tanker – the captain must steer the ship towards safety and that someone should be the president," he also said.
The oil spill has raised concerns among fisherfolk, who are afraid that it could affect their livelihood.
"The oil spill is not the only thing we are concerned about," Maximo Bayubay of Bukluran ng Mangingisda ng Batangas said in Filipino in the same statement. "We have seen what happened to our fellow fishers in Pola and Naujan and we fisherfolk of Batangas are also very worried."
"It's not just fisherfolk – these barangays depend on the seas to bring in money for trade, transport, and tourism, and soon, the whole country would feel it too," Gerry Arances, executive director of the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, said.
"The fishing sector in the VIP area, which includes Oriental Mindoro was valued at P11.8 billion in 2021 while in 2019, its tourism industry generated P3.5 billion," he said.
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