As fast as the destructive storms that came and left, so was the sinking of the 998-ton locally registered M/T Solar 1 oil hauler, owned by Sunshine Maritime, an oil hauler for petroleum giant Petron Corporation, off Guimaras strait afternoon of Aug. 11.

The tanker left Limay town in Bataan on Aug. 9 en route to Sangali town in Zamboanga del Sur, southern Philippines. It was contracted by Petron to ship two million liters of bunker fuel to the Western Mindanao Power Corporation.

Damaged vessel

Region 6 Coast Guard investigations showed that early in the morning of Aug. 10, crew members had already noticed that the ship’s chain locker, the compartment that holds the anchor, had taken in water and the ship itself had begun to lean by about six degrees to the right.

Despite this, Aguro gave the order to sail toward Iloilo. Then at around noon while traversing Iloilo strait toward open sea to Zamboanga, the ship leaned further to around 10 degrees. At around 4 p.m., Aguro made a right turn to Iloilo when the ship was already badly leaning right with its head down. He gave an order to abandon ship at 16.6 miles southwest of Lusaran Point in Nueva Valencia town, Guimaras island.

Seventeen crew members including Aguro and two surveyors made it to the shore while two others, Victor Morados and Art Ian Nabua, failed to jump off to the sea. They remain missing.

Costly oil spill

As of press time, the ship’s sinking has already caused an oil spill contaminating 200 kilometers of the coastline of Nueva Valencia, Sibunag and San Lorenzo towns. This has reportedly affected more than 20 sq. kms of coral reefs, 1,100 has. of the Taclong

national marine reserve in Nueva Valencia, at least 4,000 fishermen and 17,000 households in several coastal villages.

The oil slick also threatens more coastal villages of central Negros particularly those in Bago City and Pulupandan, Valladolid and San Enrique towns.

The mayors of Pulupandan and Valladolid have reported imminent threats to their shrimp industries. They are at risk of losing millions of pesos from the possible damage, they say.

Before this, Pulupandan Mayor Luis Mondia said that the shrimp industry in his town has already suffered about P50 million in losses caused by the bad weather and typhoons. It is likely to suffer more with the threat of oil spill contamination.

Similarly, Valladolid Mayor Ricardo Presbitero, Jr. also said that the shrimp industry in his municipality suffered millions of pesos in losses. “It would take us more than two years to rehabilitate the industry,” he said.
Negros prepares for oil spill spread

Gov. Joseph Marañon of Negros Occidental said he has already given advisories to the local government units (LGUs) most likely to be affected.

He also said that the coastguard was immediately mobilized to assess the situation. The Coast Guard with the help of Petron has created Oil Spill Combat Teams (OSCT) to prevent the oil spill from spreading.

Marañon said he will ask Petron for its counterpart in the cleaning program to be organized by the provincial government and the LGUs. The clean-up is estimated to cost about P2.2.

Meanwhile, lawyer Jose Ma. Valencia, provincial chief of staff and spokesperson of the Provincial Oil Spill Task Force, said they will likely sue Petron for the oil spill. Bulatlat

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