INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard and the local officials in Rosario, Cavite had allowed the temporary “release” of oil tanker MT Makisig several days after the vessel and its crew members were held in their custody, pending the results of an investigation into the massive diesel oil spill in Manila Bay last week.
Rosario Mayor Jose “Nonong” Ricafrente said the vessel was allowed to leave Manila Bay Sunday evening due to typhoon “Labuyo” that placed Cavite under typhoon signal number 1.
He said the vessel, owned by Herma Shipping and Transport Corp, was brought to Mariveles, Bataan.
“But they should still appear (in the investigation) once called,” Ricafrente said, adding that the company was still not free of liabilities since the investigation was not final yet.
“The Coast Guard called me yesterday (Sunday) around 5 p.m. and we agreed to release (the vessel) because there was a typhoon and we were afraid it might sink (if kept there),” Ricafrente said in Filipino.
The vessel, with its Filipino captain and 22 crewmen on board, were restricted to where the tanker docked Wednesday to unload 2.3 million liters of diesel to a Petron depot, just about a kilometer from Rosario’s shoreline. The oil spill was first spotted on Thursday, August 8.
Ricafrente, in a phone interview, said the Coast Guard’s initial report handed to him Monday showed a leak in the pipeline of Petron Corp.
The report detailed the results of “water coloring” tests that showed “violet” coloring in the water traced to Petron’s underwater pipeline, he said.
“Initially yes, because the [diesel] was already in the pipeline,” he said when asked if this meant that the oil spill was the liability of Petron and not of the oil tanker.
The mayor also clarified that the Petron depot was “not totally” shut down in light of the spill, “otherwise we would run out of (fuel) supply in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon).”
“(Petron) could still deliver to the (gas) stations what’s already inside (its depot), but no new petroleum products should be disembarked,” he said.
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