Petron oil spill


Reuters continues to cover the story about the oil tanker that sank off the Philippine coast, reporting that a Japanese salvage ship will begin siphoning industrial fuel from a sunken tanker off the central island of Guimaras:

The tanker, chartered by Petron, sank in heavy seas on Aug. 11, spilling about a tenth of its cargo and creating a toxic slick that has affected 40,000 people and 200 km (120 miles) of coastline.

On Wednesday, experts from the Japanese and US coast guards joined Philippine disaster officials to assess the damage to dozens of communities in the provinces of Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

...

The Japanese salvage ship, which left Okinawa on Tuesday night, is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment that provides images of the ocean floor from a remotely operated vehicle.

Bulatlat reports that despite the claims of the government and local RDCCs that the Philippines is a disaster-prepared country, disaster-preparedness has been the least of priorities of this government. Environmentalist activist and mining engineer Efren Fabila said government particularly Coast Guard has not been serious in addressing the causes of countless disasters in the country: "That is why we keep on having disaster after another at the expense of our environment and people," he said.

(Photo from Bulatlat, the alternative online Philippine news source)

Comments

Pandabonium said…
The Petron directors should be in that clean-up photo. What a mess.
8:58 am, August 25, 2006
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