In an attempt to limit the spill, authorities were working against time when a tanker flying the Philippine flag carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil overturned and sank off Manila on Thursday.
Early in the morning, the MT Terra Nova sank in Manila Bay, around seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Limay municipality in Bataan province, close to the capital. The ship was bound for the central city of Iloilo.
There is an apparent several-kilometer-long oil leak in the heavily trafficked waterway.
He issued a warning, saying that the largest oil disaster in Philippine history would occur if the tanker’s entire cargo leaked.
Jaime Bautista, the transport secretary, reported that 16 out of the 17 crew members had been rescued.
The missing crew member was being looked for, but severe winds and large waves were making it difficult to respond, according to Bautista.
There were four crew members undergoing medical attention.
When the MT Terra Nova capsized and sank, the coast guard declared that it was looking into “whether there was an existing weather disturbance in the vicinity waters.”
The ship capsized as Typhoon Gaemi and the yearly monsoon battered Manila and the neighboring areas with intense rains in recent days.
A “strong current” carrying an oil slick spanning around 3.7 kilometers was moving easterly to north-easterly, according to a dispatch from the coast guard.
According to Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gavan, an investigation into the event has been ordered.
Workers for marine environmental protection have been called in to assist in containing the slick.
In February 2023, a fuel tanker carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil sank in waters near the central island of Mindoro, causing one of the greatest oil disasters in Philippine history.
The fishing and tourism sectors were severely damaged when the diesel fuel and thick oil from that ship contaminated the seas and beaches along the coast of Oriental Mindoro province.
