THE ONGOING oil spill debacle in Oriental Mindoro, which has already reached Western Visayas (Caluya, Antique) and Palawan, should prompt the government to assess its readiness and capability to address oil spills.
Clearly, our local governments, the Philippine Coast Guard and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are inadequately equipped to respond to oil spills. Our government agencies at the frontlines as first responders to oil spills do not have readily available booms and other containment equipment, supplies and measures.
Moving forward, this early we remind the DENR and Coast Guard – and even local government units of coastal towns and cities – to ensure their 2024 budgets have specific budget items for oil spill containment equipment, supplies, measures, and training. The training should be specific to oil spills and other maritime pollution protocols, and include training and equipment. By equipment, we mean booms and skimmers. Training should involve capability-building for quick response to oil spills – ideally within minutes after any ship of significant tonnage sinks.
The main problem with the current oil spill crisis is it took days for any booms to be deployed — by which time the oil had already spread to other islands. If containment booms and skimmers had been readily available and timely deployed, the damage would have been confined.
It also took several days before the location of the sunken MT Princess Empress was determined. That ship’s exact location should have been known on the day it sunk.
Too, it took days before disaster aid and relief could be deployed in significant volumes to affected areas. In coastal barangays, survival is a daily issue, so days of delayed response from national agencies is unacceptable. Regulations on calamity funds for oil spills should enable quick response.
Last but equally important are the regulatory mishaps involved in the operation and chartering of the MT Princess Empress. Only in the past few days have the pertinent facts about the ship, its owners, operators, and the charter clients become public knowledge. The goal should be that within one to two days of the sinking, the Maritime Industry Authority, Philippine Ports Authority, and DENR should have reported to the news media and the general public everything their agencies know about the regulatory, operational, and corporate status of the sunken ship.
We must have standards on oil spill and maritime pollution response, readiness, and disclosure. Apparently, there are none. Our standards must match or at least approximate global standards
