Manila, Mar 29 (Representative) The massive oil leak from a tanker that sank off Oriental Mindoro province a month ago has affected at least 63 tourism sites and 1,000 tourism workers, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism said. Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said that affected tourism spots includes those for community-based tourism. “We are monitoring this very closely,” she told a local broadcaster on Monday. Frasco said she directed the regional tourism offices “to craft a recovery action plan to guide the affected tourism stakeholders.” She added that the government will provide affected tourism workers with social protection. She said the department will equip the affected frontline workers with “capacity building and skills training programs to prepare and provide them with alternative sources of livelihood” after the oil spill.
The MT Princess Empress vessel was carrying 800,000 liters of industrial oil when it sank off Oriental Mindoro on February 28, causing a widespread oil spill in Oriental Mindoro and the neighboring provinces. The ill-fated oil tanker was sailing to Iloilo province in the central Philippines from Bataan province, northwest of Manila, when it experienced engine trouble and sank. One month after the accident, the clean-up operation continues in the coastal areas in south Luzon island and central Philippine regions. The government is figuring out how to siphon the rest of the industrial oil from the tanker on the sea bed. The government has collected over 10,000 liters of oil-mixed water and nearly 73,000 kilograms of contaminated debris. The disaster has affected more than 36,000 families.