The oil spill from the sunken oil tanker off the coast of Bataan has reached the shorelines of Tanza, Cavite, according to a report from the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) on Monday, July 29. 

“What we feared has happened; the oil has spread throughout Manila Bay and is disrupting the livelihoods of many fishermen,” said Ronnel Arambulo, PAMALAKAYA Vice Chairperson.

Arambulo said that more than 5,000 fisherfolk in Tanza will be affected if the oil spill is not contained immediately.

According to PAMALAKAYA, residents and fisherfolk in Tanza were met with a strong odor linked to the oil spill on the morning of July 29, raising concerns about its impact on local fisheries. 

Fishermen fear that the oil slick could contaminate their resources, potentially leading to a decline in fishery yields and a subsequent drop in farm gate prices.

Arambulo criticized the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and other authorities for their perceived lack of urgency in addressing the extent of the damage caused by the spill. 

The ongoing threat to the livelihoods of Manila Bay’s fisherfolk came amid recovery efforts from Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon, which had previously battered the region.

PAMALAKAYA plans to conduct an on-site inspection of municipal waters in Cavite to assess the full impact of the spill and is calling for immediate and concrete measures to rehabilitate the affected communities and resources.

A Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil sank off Manila last week. 

One crew member of the MT Terra Nova was killed when the tanker capsized in Manila Bay, nearly seven kilometers (4.3 miles) off Limay municipality in Bataan province, as it sailed to the central city of Iloilo.

The vessel went down in rough seas as heavy rains fuelled by Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon lashed Manila and surrounding regions in recent days.

Authorities postponed on Sunday the removal of fuel from a tanker that sank in Manila Bay, with fears of an environmental catastrophe growing as leaking oil reached shore for the first time.

The siphoning of the 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil from the vessel’s hold was pushed back to Tuesday at the earliest so divers could seal nine leaking valves first, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters.

“An order was given to seal the valves first before the start of the siphoning operations in order to prevent further leakages,” Balilo said Sunday. “The weather remains bad out there but they have a target to finish this (sealing the valves) by tomorrow.”

Balilo later told AFP the coast guard had found “small patches” of oil on the coast of the municipality of Bulakan, on the bay’s north shore near Manila.

The contaminated shoreline was on the edge of a reclamation project for a future international airport, he said.

Balilo said the coast guard was also investigating a report by the environmental group Greenpeace that a “thick layer of oil” was coating the sea Sunday about four kilometers (2.5 miles) off the coast of Hagonoy municipality, near Bulakan.

The coast guard has warned that it would be an “environmental catastrophe” if the entire cargo were to leak. – with reports from Agence France-Presse