MANILA, 16 August 2006 — Philippine officials yesterday said the government is seeking foreign help to contain a massive oil spill that is threatening tourist resorts in the central part of the country.
The Philippine Coast Guard said an estimated 2 million liters of bunker oil spilled by a tanker that sank off Guimaras Island last Friday has already spread to a 20 nautical mile stretch, polluting fishing grounds, dive spots and a national marine reserve.
“Sad to note that the large oil spill is now wreaking havoc to the fishing grounds, beautiful diving spots, marine sanctuaries and other sensitive coastal areas in Guimaras island,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan, the head of the Coast Guard, told Reuters that it could take up to three years to clean the slick.
Local governments have been mobilized to use wood, bamboo, oil drums and tires to try to contain the biggest oil slick to afflict the country.
“This is a very serious concern and we need all the help we can get because we have had no oil spill of this magnitude,” Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters in central Philippine city of Bacolod, close to Guimaras.
The Taklong island national marine reserve, located on the southern tip of Guimaras, was one of the areas hit after a tanker, chartered by the Philippines’ largest refiner Petron, sank off the coast of Guimaras.
The marine reserve is a feeding and breeding ground for fish and other species. Scientists recorded 29 genera of hard coral in the area, 144 species of fish, 7 species of seagrasses and 3 species of mangroves.
Gosingan said the Coast Guard would ask their counterparts in Indonesia and Japan for technical help on stopping the spread of the oil. The Philippines would also seek help to salvage the tanker, Solar 1, which sank while en route to deliver 2 million liters of bunker oil to a power plant on the southern island of Mindanao. Eighteen crew were rescued and 2 remain missing.
Environmental group Greenpeace said the Philippines must hold Petron and its partners accountable for the damage to coastal and marine ecosystems. “The vessel that sank in Guimaras Strait in the Philippines is an ecological time bomb that may cause long-term and possibly permanent damage to the environment and livelihoods of people,” the group said in a statement.
The Guimaras provincial board held a meeting Monday in Nueva Valencia town and declared the entire province under a “state of calamity,” which allows the speedy release of relief funds during a disaster, said town Mayor Diosdado Gonzaga.
Regional environment chief Julian Amador said 1,128 hectares (2,787 acres) of mangrove in Nueva Valencia and another 26 hectares (64.25 acres) on an island marine reserve have been damaged. The oil was about 10 centimeters (four inches) thick at the Taklong Island marine sanctuary.
Gonzaga said nearby Sibunag town also has been affected.
Officials in Valladolid on the southern tip of nearby Negros Occidental province also declared a “state of calamity” as the oil slick approached its shores late yesterday.
The waters around the island resort of Inampulugan, part of Negros Occidental’s Pulupandan municipality, was contaminated yesterday.
Gonzaga said about 6,000 of his constituents, mostly dependent on fishing, have been affected but the number could increase after local officials complete a survey. Emergency food supplies — rice and canned goods — have been distributed to residents of 11 coastal villages along 132 kilometers (82.5 miles) of the municipal shoreline,
Gonzaga said. “Our shorelines hit by the oil look like they were painted black. Anything it touches turns black,” he told The Associated Press by cellular telephone. (With reports from wire services)
