Coast Guard ready for oil spills in Davao Gulf

DAVAO CITY Sept. 21 (PIA) – The Philippine Coast Guard said that it is ready to respond in cases of oil spills in the Davao Gulf.

Guesting at last Wednesday’s (Sept. 19) Club 888 forum in the occasion of the National Maritime Week celebration, Captain George Ursabia commander of the Coast Guard District Southeastern Mindanao said that the PCG has the equipment to respond to spills and leakages of oil and other hazardous materials.

The PCG in the district is equipped with marine pollution booms, a skimmer to recover oil, holding tank and power packs used to siphon off oil from the waters. Aside from response equipment the PCG is annually inspecting oil depots to determine if they have oil spill contingency plans, this with necessary measures to prevent oil spills and equipment to immediately respond to incidents.

Ursabia said that time is the essence in oil spills, “the earlier, the better response.”

There have been no recorded oil spills in the Davao Gulf in the past decades, Ursabia bared. The last recorded oil spill was in the late 1980s when a ship sank in the Davao Gulf and spilled oil.

However despite the readiness, Ursabia admitted that the PCG district cannot handle on their own large oil spills as big as the one which occurred in Guimaras in 2006.

He said that responding to large oil spills will entail redeployment of additional equipment from other Coast Guard stockpiles across the country.

Ursabia said that usually those responsible for the oil spill will pay for the expenses incurred by the coast guard in the clean-up operations.

The occurrence of oil spills could greatly affect the gulf which is cited  one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world by the World Wildlife Fund, Davao Gulf is the home to reef and mangrove species, cetaceans and a host of invertebrate, among these included endangered marine turtles, dugongs and whale sharks.

Nearly 20,000 fisher folks depend on the gulf for livelihood, Davao Gulf also hosts numerous tourism attractions like white sand beaches and coral gardens. (PIA-11/RG Alama)