Visayas Oil Spill

MAASIN City — Rep. Roger Mercado has asked the Philippine Coast Guard to remove a tanker vessel which ran aground at a marine sanctuary in Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte on Aug. 29.

Mercado said yesterday he talked with Rear Admiral Gilmer Batestil of the Philippine Coast Guard who promised to extract MT Shirley Ann, which was carrying 230,000 liters of diesel when it ran aground.

Mercado said he told Batestil that residents in the area feared that the tanker, which rammed a barrier reef and ran aground just a few meters from a rocky cliff along Tankaan point, would cause greater damage.

“They never learned,” Mercado told the Inquirer referring to the 2006 Guimaras oil spill.

The oil tanker MT Solar I, carrying two million liters of bunker fuel, sank on Aug. 11, 2006 in rough seas off Guimaras Island and spilled 500,000 liters of oil which continues to affect fishing grounds, marine sanctuaries and mangrove reserves in three out of five municipalities on Guimaras Island.

“It's already (been) two weeks now and the (MT Shirley Ann) is still not extracted,” said Mercado.

The vessel was swept by strong southwesterly winds and strong waves when it developed engine trouble past midnight of Aug. 29.

Three days after it ran aground, a tugboat hired by the owner of the vessel, South Pole Transport Corp. failed to extract the ship.

The rope they were using snapped because of the heavy load.

The tugboat made two more attempts using bigger ropes but it still failed to pull out the vessel.

Chief Petty Officer Manolito Dancel, chief of the Phil. Coast Guard station in Maasin, said the ship's owner had already hired Harbor Star, another salvor company, to salvage the vessel. /INQUIRER