Together with an oil spill boom and skimmer, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) was around the suspected area of the sunken oil tanker MT Princess Empress at the northeast of Balingawan Port, Lucta Port, and Buloc Bay in Oriental Mindoro on March 14, 2023. (File photo from Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. via the Philippine Coast Guard)
CITY OF CALAPAN, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines — Equipment and other materials sent by foreign governments are seen to have helped hasten operations to contain the oil spill from a fuel tanker that sank off Oriental Mindoro more than a month ago arrived here this week, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.
The deployment of the dynamic positioning vessel (DPV) Pacific Valkyrie and its remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) Hydros was part of the government’s contract with the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving.
According to the PCG, the ship will conduct surveys and three-dimensional mapping of MT Princess Empress, which sank off Naujan town on Feb. 28. It said the DPV Pacific Valkyrie will also try to execute remedial measures to mitigate the oil release from the tanker using ROV Hydros.
The PCG said its teams collected 15,933 liters of oily water mixture and 180 sacks of oil-contaminated materials during their offshore spill response operations. For shoreline response, the PCG collected 180 sacks of oil-contaminated materials, bringing to 4,706 sacks and 22 drums the total of waste collected in 13 spill-hit villages in Naujan, Bulalacao, and Pola towns from March 1 to April 4.
On Saturday, specialized bags from the United Kingdom also arrived in Oriental Mindoro to temporarily plug the leaking sections of the tanker so oil would not mix with water, said Gov. Humerlito Dolor in a Facebook post.
On Wednesday, the Korean Embassy in the Philippines said a ship from South Korea unloaded in Manila 20 tons of sorbent pads and snares, 1,000 meters of solid flotation curtain boom, and 2,000 sets of personal protective equipment that would be used in operations in Mindoro.
The Korean government earlier sent four experts from the Korea Coast Guard Emergency Response Team, along with several embassy staff members, to provide technical support for the PCG and other partners like the United States Coast Guard.