The Philippine Coast Guard and Japanese experts began using an underwater robot to install specialized bags to seal off leaks from the sunken MT Princess Empress, which was about 400 meters beneath the surface.
“The specialized bags from the United Kingdom have arrived at Oriental Mindoro to temporarily seal the leaking areas of the MT Princess Empress,” Oriental Mindoro Gov. Humerlito Dolor said in Filipino on his Facebook post.
He added that 16 more customized bags from a plant in Cavite were arriving on Monday.
The bagging technique is part of the next phase of the oil spill management.
The MT Princess Empress was carrying 900,000 liters of industrial fuel oil when it sank in the waters off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro last Feb. 28, creating an environmental disaster.
At the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council(NDRRMC)’s first full council meeting, the PCG presented its priorities for the next level of operations, which include the hiring
of marine salvor to do bagging, sealing, patching of all identified leaks, and hot tapping and siphoning of the fuel cargo of the shipwreck.
As of March 31, some 47 Coast Guard personnel were deployed to conduct shoreline assessment clean-up while seven of its members were tasked to conduct offshore response operations.
To support shoreline response operations, around 16 Coast Guard marine science technicians, 20 personnel from the local government units, 58 personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and three volunteers from the Department of Health (DOH) were on duty.
On Thursday Dolor said the entire province of Oriental Mindoro will be placed under a state of calamity.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, meanwhile, recommended that fish bans be maintained as tests yielded minimal traces o oil and grease in the province’s spill-affected areas.
The agency said the initial analyses are not yet conclusive evidence as far as food safety is concerned since the samples were collected during the early days of March.
Large parts of Oriental Mindoro were affected by an oil spill caused by the sinking of motor tanker Princess Empress.
Thousands of fishermen and their families are now part of the government’s cash-for-work program after fishing bans were imposed in the affected waters.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said it has given at least P38.1 million in aid to affected families.