CLEANING CREW | Personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard clean up rocks along the shores of Barangay Benit in San Ricardo town, Southern Leyte, on Sunday, two days after an oil spill was reported in the area. (Photo from the Philippine Coast Guard)
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has started investigating two ships that could have been responsible for an oil spill that damaged the coastal areas of San Ricardo town in Southern Leyte.
Lt. Comdr. Donna Liza Duran, PCG Southern Leyte station commander, said they took oil samples from LCT Georgia-1 and MV San Ric Ferry 20, both of which were docked in a private port in Barangay Benit of the town when the spill was spotted on July 7.
LCT Georgia-1 is a cargo ship while MV San Ric Ferry 20 is an interisland passenger vessel that plies the route between San Ricardo and Surigao City.
According to Duran, the Marine Environmental Protection Group of the Southern Leyte Coast Guard station, together with barangay officials and residents, immediately conducted manual scooping and shoreline cleanup to get rid of the oil slick.
“We already took samples of the oils that spilled in the sea on Friday and will match these to the oil from the two ships so we can determine where they came from,” Duran said on Monday.
The oil spill, which was reported by residents of Barangay Benit on Friday morning, had spread about 500 meters from the shore of the village.
Larry Solis, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management office in Southern Leyte, said at least three coastal villages were affected by the oil spill—Benit, Timba and parts of Cabutan.
Duran said a PCG ship had arrived in San Ricardo, bringing with it some oil spill booms to prevent the oil slick from spreading.
Contained
“There’s no need to panic because the spilled oil was already contained, including those left in the debris and stones at the shoreline,” she said.
As of Sunday, authorities already used 100 pieces of absorbent pads to contain the oil spill.
Duran advised residents not to fish at this time for safety purposes.
The cleanup drive is being done by the municipal government through its disaster risk reduction and management office, the local police, and members of the PCG.
The PCG has yet to determine the volume of oil that spilled to the sea.
Mayor Roy Salinas of San Ricardo town said there was no need to declare a state of calamity due to the oil spill.
However, he directed affected residents not to venture to the sea, either to swim or to fish.
“A cleanup drive was immediately conducted to ensure that it (oil) would not further spread,” he said in a phone interview on Sunday.