The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is “racing against time” to rescue a missing seaman and contain an oil spill that is threatening to become the worst in Philippine maritime history.
“We are racing against time,” said Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, the PCG spokesman, told journalists in an online briefing. “We are doing our best to contain it.”
The tanker Terra Nova, which was carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel, was heading to Iloilo City in the central Philippines when it sank at 1:10 a.m. on July 25, off Lamao Point in Bataan, one of the provinces around Manila Bay.
Balilo said the PCG was still investigating the actual cause of the sinking, but heavy monsoon rain had been pounding Luzon since July 22 at the time of the incident.
Since last weekend, the seasonal southwest monsoon had been strengthened by Super Typhoon Gaemi, which also caused the sinking of a cargo ship off Kaohsiung in Taiwan on July 25.
PCG commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil L Gavan dispatched the patrol vessel BRP Melchora Aquino to rescue the Terra Nova’s crew of 17, but one crewman remained missing at press time.
Balilo said PCG assets were deployed to search for the missing crewman and inspect the sunken tanker by air. They found an oil spill two nautical miles long being carried by strong currents on an easterly to northeasterly tack toward Bulacan, another of the provinces in the shores of Manila Bay.
“There is a big danger that Manila would be affected… because [the oil spill is within Manila Bay,” Balilo said. “The oil spill is minimal. It’s probably the fuel used by the ship.”
The PCG, however, is working on a worst-case scenario and marine environmental protection personnel have already been dispatched to the province of Bulacan, and Pampanga “to monitor and prepare for a possible oil spill.”
The Philippine Coast Guard racing against time in a rescue mission.
Manila Bay is surrounded by Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Metro Manila and Cavite. It is the site of the Port of Manila, the busiest port in the country, and several others, including the Freeport Area of Bataan and the private Cavite Gateway Terminal.
The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga has also rushed to the area to extend assistance that may be needed while awaiting the official PCG report.
Balilo said that aside from the missing crewman, the main concern was to determine the state of the 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel that the Terra Nova was carrying.
If the fuel leaks out of the vessel, it will surpass the oil spill caused by the sinking in February last year of the MT Princess Empress, which was carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel when it sank off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.
The government had to spend almost PHP1 billion (more than US$17 million) over a couple of months to clean up the Princess Empress spill that reached as far as Palawan Island.
All photos credit: Philippine Coast Guard
Top photo: Sinking tanker Terra Nova.
