The petroleum extraction from a ship that sank in Manila Bay was delayed in the Philippines on Sunday due to mounting concerns of an environmental disaster as the oil began to flow and made landfall for the first time.
According to Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo, the 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil that were supposed to be siphoned from the ship’s hold were postponed until Tuesday at the latest so that divers could shut nine leaking valves first.
One crew member perished after the tanker sank early on Thursday in severe weather off Manila, potentially resulting in the greatest oil spill in history for the nation.
“An order was given to seal the valves first before the start of the siphoning operations in order to prevent further leakages,” Balilo said Sunday.
“The weather remains bad out there but they have a target to finish this (sealing the valves) by tomorrow.”
A section of shoreline in Hagonoy municipality, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Manila, has now been affected by oil leaks, according to Balilo.
According to him, cleanup teams from the Coast Guard were sent to the region on Sunday to apply oil dispersants.
Balilo was unable to determine the extent of the beach’s devastation or the type of harm caused by the oil.
The coast guard has issued a warning, stating that there would be a “environmental catastrophe” if the entire cargo leaked.
It has also called for a suspension of fishing in Manila Bay to prevent people “eating contaminated fish”.
The Philippines has struggled to contain serious oil spills in the past.
It took months to clean up after a tanker carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil sank off the central island of Mindoro last year, contaminating its waters and beaches and devastating the fishing and tourism industries.
In 2006, a different ship collapsed off the coast of Guimaras, Portugal, dumping tens of thousands of gallons of oil that devastated local fishing grounds, wrecked a marine reserve, and blanketed sections of coastline in black sludge.
Balilo reported on Sunday that another coast guard squad was sent to the mouth of Manila Bay on Saturday to assist in the hunt for an unknown number of crew members who were on a second tanker that sank close by.
There was no cargo on board the MTKR Jason Bradley when it sank, but the wreck has been found and a salvage will happen later, according to a coast guard statement.
The sinkings happened as Manila and the surrounding areas were recently battered by intense rains brought on by Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon.
