Pola Mayor Jennifer Cruz gave the owner of MT Princess Empress a ten-day grace period starting March 13 to clean up the mess following the sunken oil tanker MT Princess Empress off the coast of Naujan more than two weeks ago.
MT Princess Empress is owned by RDC Reield Marine Services. The incident caused oil spillage which is heavily affecting the coastal barangays of the town of Pola and other southern municipalities of Oriental Mindoro.
According to Cruz, 11 barangays were greatly affected by the unfortunate incident when she reported the consequences during a meeting with the newly-organized Pola Task Force with the presence of Incident Command System (ICS) led by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO).
PCG Commodore and ICS Commander Geronimo Tuvilla gave suggestions and strategies for the investigation of the incident which would help support legal actions to be taken against the owner of the oil tanker.
Although Cruz is grateful for the support extended by the national and provincial governments, she said that she could no longer wait for the promised compensation from the owner of the oil tanker because of her obligation, which is to do immediate action to help affected communities.
On behalf of Gov. Humerlito A. Dolor, PDRRM Officer Vinscent Gahol assured the provincial government’s full support to ease the suffering of residents of severely affected barangays of the town of Pola. (LTC/PIA-OrMin)
