Shipping firm to plug leaking tanks

TECHNICAL divers from Japan have started plugging the leaking fuel tanks of the sunken St. Thomas Aquinas.

The four technical divers from Nippon Salvage Company have been contracted by 2Go Travel. They arrived last Monday evening and immediately went to work at the accident site.

“Our priority is to plug the holes of the ship that sank so the oil spill will stop,” said Lito Salvio, 2Go assistant vice president.

The divers have been assisting the Philippine Navy in their retrieval operations.

Salvio also announced that the consultant from the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF), Dr. Michael O’Brien who has also arrived in Cebu. His findings and recommendations, Salvio said, will be discussed together with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Cebu as well as the authorities in the affected areas.

The Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. will continue chemical dispersals in the areas affected by the oil spill. This will continue as long as there is good weather, Salvio said.

Grant Go, vice president for operations of the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. (Psacc), said they will be providing more chemical dispersants to the Philippine Navy.

Go said that they have been working in coordination with 2Go since the accident last Friday. 2Go’s passenger vessel St. Thomas Aquinas collided with cargo vessel Sulpicio Express Siete in Lawis Ledge, off the coast of Talisay City around 9 p.m. last August 16.

Clean-up

Aside from their on-site operations, Salvio said they are also focusing on clean-up operations of areas affected by the oil spill.

In addition to the 45 PCG personnel who are conducting clean-up operations in barangays Day-as, Catarman and Gabi in Cordova town, Salvio announced that an additional four platoons or 120 soldiers composed of navy, army, air force and personnel from the central command office were also deployed to help.

“Both 2GO and Psacc have been providing materials for these groups to clean the shores and waters in Cordova,” Salvio said.

The Lapu-Lapu City government is continuously gathering materials to make improvised oil spill booms and oil sweepers as bunker oil and oil sheen are still spotted in the coastal barangays.

A team has been tasked to collect and gather cut hairs from the parlors and barber shops, saw dust, feathers, unused linens from hotels, sacks and empty bottles of mineral water.

These materials will be used for sweeping bunker oil and filtering oil sheen which are still visible in the waters along Hilutongan channel and is affecting the beach resorts.

Nenette Castillion, the new General Manager of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa called the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Saturday afternoon and reported traces of bunker oil at their beach front but none of them responded.

She also called DENR who later came and took water samples to determine water quality, “we do not allow our guests to go swimming at sea as there are still oil sheen and traces of bunker oil in the water as we have experienced it before when a guest complained having oil stains in the shirt after he went swimming.” Castillion said.

Mayor Paz Radaza’s office already coordinated with experts from the University of the Philippines to discuss ways on how to prevent health consequences of the oil spill like what happened to Guimaras Island, when oil spill resulted to health conditions like asthma.

Radaza had convened the city’s crisis management committee last monday to address the threat of oil sheen along the city’s coast,” she said.

In Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama has alerted concerned City Hall departments to prepare in case the oil spill reaches the waters of Cebu City.