LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Gov. Ramon “Mon-mon” Guico III on Monday asked the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to remove the tanker loaded with more than a million liters of oil from Sual Bay, where it had docked since May 3.
“The ship should be moved to a safer location to protect the bay area from destruction, in the event the crude oil from the ship leaks into the bay,” said Governor Guico in an emergency meeting he called at the Urduja House.
CLEAR
AND PRESENT DANGER. The tanker MV Veronica seized by the Bureau of Customs
(BoC) of the Philippines and now docked at the Sual Bay, Pangasinan after its
Captain could not produce pertinent documents to the BoC. It carries 1.35
million liters of crude. An anxious Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico, III asked
the BoC to relocate the ship to a safer area to protect the bay. (Caption by Mortz C. Ortigoza) |
Provincial Legal Officer BabyRuth
Torre said she has written the BoC to formalize the governor’s request.
The ship, MV Veronica I, is now
under the custody of the BoC office in Sual after the agency seized the ship
when it failed to show the necessary documents for its cargo.
It carried 1.35 million liters of
crude oil worth P54 million.
Sual Bay, which is a cove facing
the Lingayen Gulf, hosts the town’s mariculture area where more than 800 bangus
cages are located.
Sual and the towns of Bolinao and
Anda supply about 80 percent of bangus produced in Pangasinan.
Pablo Costales of Maritime
Industry Authority (Marina) extension office in Pangasinan said the ship was
not issued by his agency a safety certificate and it should not have sailed.
Cmdr. Mark Theodore Valencia,
chief of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) station in Pangasinan, recommended
that MV Veronica 1 be allowed to temporarily dock at Sual Fish Port as safety
precaution because a typhoon is expected to enter the country on May 26.
“As recommended by Commander Valencia, let us allow the ship to dock in
the pier to prevent the possibility that it will be dragged. But it has to be
ensured that the evidence, the contents of the ship will be guarded,” said
Governor Guico.
Governor Guico also said that its
docking is temporary, adding that the ship should be eventually removed from
the bay.
For its part, the Deparment of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) suggested that spill booms be
installed around the ship when it docks in the pier.
The DENR also suggested the
installation of additional anchors in the ship to stabilize the vessel. It said
that their divers found out that the ship dropped its anchor on a muddy
substrate.
Lawyer Catherine Regino, legal
officer of Sual, said that there is already “an imminent danger or threat”
because of the spillage of the oil coming from the ship.
However, laboratory analyses of
water samples taken by the DENR near the ship indicated that there were no
traces of oil spill in the area yet.
“But the danger remains,” said Governor Guico.
“Is there a way to legally remove the contents of the ship and then
remove the ship from the bay and then account for the contents?” the governor
asked.
Lawyer Emmanuel Laforteza of the
Provincial Prosecutor’s Office said that a sample of the oil is only needed as
evidence to be presented in court.
“And for the rest of the diesel products, we can remove that and put it
in a safer place or a container as long as we can preserve the evidence by
taking a sample. And we have to fast track the hearing of that case so we can
dispose of this hazardous element,” Laforteza said. (PangasinanPIO)
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