Iloilo execs seek faster spill cleanup

COAST GUARD workers are the first to respond to the call for a cleanup of the oil spill in Estancia, Iloilo. GUIJO DUENAS

ILOILO CITY—An official monitoring the progress of operations to clean up the oil spill that aggravated the effects of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on a town in northern Iloilo province is asking the firm handling the cleanup to work faster as the  operation is just half completed almost three months after the spill hit the town.

Rex Sabada, a consultant of the provincial government and manager of the University of the Philippines Visayas Oil Spill Program, said the cleanup operation in Estancia town, Iloilo, had to move at a quicker pace.

“There’s a need to fast-track the operations by hiring more workers,” said Sabada, who is also consultant of the Power Barge 103 Oil Spill Task Force, a group formed by the provincial government to monitor the cleanup operations.

Sabada, who inspected the cleanup site with other members of the task force on Wednesday, said stretches of the coastline in Estancia and Batad towns were still contaminated with bunker fuel.

He added that oil sheen was also still visible in the water.

According to Sabada, odor from bunker fuel is still present notably between 10 a.m. and

2 p.m. when temperatures soar in the area.

An estimated 900,000 liters of bunker fuel leaked into the shores of Estancia after Power Barge 103, with a capacity of

35 megawatts of electricity and operated by the  National Power Corp., was detached from its moorings and slammed into the shore by waves generated by Yolanda.

The oil spill forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 residents of Botongon, a village in Estancia. At least 100 families had been barred from returning home because of the contamination.

Sabada said at least 100 mature mangrove trees had died in Barangay Embarkadero in Batad town due to the effects of the supertyphoon and the oil spill.

The cleanup is being undertaken by  Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc., which was contracted for P87 million by the government agency Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.  that owns the barge.

The private firm has drawn criticisms for delays in the cleanup and apparent lack of expertise and equipment, but this has been disputed by the company.

Rocks, sand and soil along the coastline are being cleaned with the use of machines that release low-pressure seawater.

Sabada said there is also a need to use absorbent materials to block oil being removed from shorelines from mixing with seawater.