Coast Guard sends team to check reports of oil slick off Iloilo town

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—The Coast Guard dispatched on Tuesday teams to the coast of San Joaquin town in Iloilo after residents reported an oil slick in the area.

Commodore Athelo Ybañez, Coast Guard Western Visayas commander, however, said it was unlikely that the tar balls were from a cargo ship that sank on January 22 in the neighboring province of Antique.

The residents of barangays (villages) Sinogbuhan and Igcadlum in San Joaquin town observed the oil slick Monday afternoon, which turned to tar balls the next day, triggering concerns that the slick could have come from the ill-fated MV Seaford 2, which sank off the coast of the capital town of San Jose in Antique. The ship was carrying 35,000 bags of cement and around 7,000 liters of diesel fuel.

Ybañez said the Coast Guard Western Visayas headquarters sent its Marine Environmental Protection Unit to conduct samplings and monitor the area.

He said the tar balls could have been caused by fuel washed ashore from passing ships or motorboats.

“It is unlikely that it came from the sunken cargo ship because the vessel was carrying diesel fuel, which easily evaporates when exposed,” Ybañez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.

He said it was also improbable that any leakage from the cargo would reach the shores of San Joaquin because of the geographic contour of the coast of Antique.

The MV Seaford 2, owned by Seaford Shipping Inc., sank after taking in water when it struck a hard object near midnight on January 21.

The vessel was on its way to the port of Lipata in Culasi town in Antique from Lugait in Misamis Oriental.

All the 18 crew members were rescued after they abandoned the ship hours before it sank.

The local government of San Jose and the province of Antique have asked the ship owner to salvage the vessel at the soonest to allay the fears of residents of a possible oil spill.