Coal barge given 10-day ultimatum
COAL SPILL’S ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD
Agno coral reefs, livelihood destroyed
LINGAYEN – The provincial government gave the owner of a barge loaded with 4,500 metric tons of coal that ran aground in Agno on Dec. 18 last year, a 10-day ultimatum ending March 20 to remove its vessel that is continuously spilling coal into the water there up to now.
The spilled coal, now estimated at 300 cubic meters, is now threatening to cause a big environmental disaster in the area facing the South China Sea.
The ultimatum was issued by Provincial Administrator and concurrent legal officer Virgilio Solis following an inter-agency meeting he called Friday at Urduja House that discussed the serious coal spill in sitio Talisay, barangay Macaboboni in Agno.
He said the owner of the vessel would be sued if the barge is not removed and the same would be taken over for public auction.
The problem was caused by the barge LCT Eisner, owned by the Asian Shipping Lines, when it ran aground in the morning of Dec. 18 last year after encountering big waves while enroute to Poro Point, San Fernando La Union from Semirara, Antique.
The vessel remained in shallow water, some 20 meters away from the shore in sitio Talisay as several efforts by tug boats chartered by the Philippine National Oil Company to pull it out failed.
The PNOC owns the coal loaded into the barge.
A report of the Agno police led by Senior Inspector Leonardo Navalta showed that the incident caused the destruction of seaweed and corals in the area, affecting the livelihood of fishermen, especially the marginal ones.
Lieutenant Commander Lyndon Cendreda of the Coastguard initially reported there were more or less 100 cubic meters of coal that littered the shore because of the continuous pounding by the waves on LCT Eisner.
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