South Korea Coast Guard to arrive for Mindoro oil spill cleanup on March 28

Members of the Korean Coast Guard (KCG) who will assist Philippine authorities in the ongoing oil spill cleanup off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro will arrive in the country on Tuesday, March 28.

The South Koreans will be joining the Japanese and the US Coast Guard who are also in the country to help the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Cedric Castillo reported on “24 Oras” on Monday.

A total of ten municipalities in the province were now under a state of calamity due to the oil spill stemming from the February 28 sinking of the MT Princess Empress which was carrying 900,000 liters of industrial fuel.

Over 8,000 liters of oil have been collected and on Thursday, authorities are set to start emptying the tank of the motor tanker through a special bag procured from Singapore.

“Ang pinakamabilis na paraan ay tinatawag na bagging. Meron kunyari na source ng spill na lumalabas so may bag na ipapatong sa kanya nang sa ganon 'yung langis ay mahuhuli ng bag na ito. Nang sa ganoon 'yung bag habang napupuno siya, unti-unti rin lumalabas ang tubig dagat,” PCG Deputy Commandant for Operations Vice Admiral Rolando Lizor Punzalan Jr. said.

(The fastest way for this is the so-called bagging. You will cover the hole with a bag and as it fills up with oil, the seawater also escapes.)

Punzalan added that they had yet to schedule the patching of the maritime vessel and the siphoning of the remaining oil from the tank.

“Meantime, that the source is still there, there’s a possibility that the oil to a certain extent will be coming again but not that much...Decreasing naman na ang sightings ng oil spill unlike previous several days na maraming oil,” said Punzalan Jr.

(Meantime, that the source is still there, there’s a possibility that the oil to a certain extent will be coming again but not that much…Sightings of the oil spill are decreasing, unlike the previous days when there were a lot of oil sludges.)

More than 20,000 families or over 100,000 residents were affected by the oil spill.

On Sunday, eligible residents may start claiming damages from the incident, including those whose livelihoods were affected such as fisherfolk and tourism-related businesses. It was still unclear how much they would receive.

Meanwhile, the owner of RDC Rieild Marine Services, the ship operating company, appeared before the National Bureau of Investigation but declined to comment. — Sundy Locus/DVM, GMA Integrated News