MANILA, Philippines — After a month and a half of continued operations, the oil spill cleanup along the shore of Oriental Mindoro is now 78 percent complete, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.
PCG incident management team (IMT) leader Commodore Geronimo Tuvilla informed President Marcos on April 15 that 77.9 percent of the affected shoreline is now free from oil slick.
The figure covers 31.64 kilometers of the 40.61-km oil-affected shoreline.
In a statement issued yesterday, the PCG told Marcos that its offshore response team had so far collected more than 20,000 liters of oily water.
Marcos visited the province on Saturday.
The PCG said its shoreline response team gathered approximately 134,000 kilos of oil-saturated debris from 12 affected barangays in the towns of Calapan, Naujan and Pola.
The report said the oil spill affected around 9,600 square meters of mangrove forest in Pola.
Of the estimated 9,600 sqm of mangrove forest, 8,900 sqm are located in the village of Batuhan, 500 sqm in Misong and 200 sqm in Calima.
During the visit, Marcos joined an aerial surveillance team to see the condition of the municipalities affected by the oil spill as well as the area where the PCG and the Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. conduct offshore containment and recovery efforts.
Marcos assured residents of Pola that concerned government agencies, private stakeholders and foreign counterparts would implement the most efficient and effective response strategies to address the oil spill.
The oil came from the tanker M/T Princess Empress, which sank in the waters off Naujan town on Feb. 28.
The Empress was carrying 900,000 liters of industrial fuel.
From 24 leaks to 1
From the original 24 identified sources of oil leaks from the Empress, the number has been reduced to one after the rest were plugged by foreign experts tapped to help control the oil spill with the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the PCG said.
The remaining leak source was the second pressure valve located at the portside of the tanker.
The source has not yet been plugged “due to obstructions that may compromise the ROV operations,” the PCG said.
Foreign experts used specialized bags made in the United Kingdom to plug the leaks in the Empress.
Locally made specialized bags produced by a golf bag manufacturing company in Silang, Cavite were also used to cover the leaks.