Mindoro execs pressed to back full rehab of areas hit by oil spill
CALAPAN CITY—A citizens’ coalition advocating for the protection of the biodiversity-rich Verde Island Passage (VIP) has urged the provincial government of Occidental Mindoro to push for sustained environmental rehabilitation and full accountability for the massive oil spill that hit the province’s waters nearly three years ago.
The group Protect VIP— composed of fisherfolk, civil society organizations, and religious, youth and labor groups —submitted on Tuesday a position paper to the provincial board, lamenting how “justice and recovery remain incomplete” years after their communities suffered from the impact of the dumping of some 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil when MT Princess Empress sank off Naujan town on Feb. 28, 2023.
The vessel was traveling from Limay, Bataan, to Iloilo province when it met rough sea conditions and eventually sank.
Fr. Edwin Gariguez, lead convener of Protect VIP, appealed to provincial legislators to “take an active role in advancing policies and measures that would ensure long-term environmental recovery and prevent similar disasters in the future.”
The group decried how coastal communities continue bearing the brunt of fishing suspensions and ecosystem damage, citing estimates that placed environmental and economic losses from the tragedy at P41.2 billion, based on a study by the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) two years ago.
The CEED study valued the environmental damage at P40.1 billion and socioeconomic losses at P1.1 billion.
Fisherfolk in Mindoro continue to report reduced catch compared with prespill levels, while marine protected areas (MPAs) affected by the spill in the VIP had failed to live up to government water quality guidelines for oil and grease content in 2024, the Protect VIP manifesto said.
The group said official response efforts were scaled down prematurely, noting that fishing bans were lifted and response teams demobilized on July 20, 2023, even as oil and grease were still being detected in the coasts of Pola town.
“The cessation of active cleanup was not followed by a comprehensive, long-term rehabilitation program,” the group added.
It warned that monitoring in many areas has stalled and that independent data point to lingering contamination in biodiversity-rich MPAs.
The coalition flagged the continued presence of the sunken MT Princess Empress as a “persistent hazard,” saying the vessel remains on the seafloor with an undetermined volume of oil that could trigger a secondary spill. “There can be no genuine long-term recovery while the vessel remains submerged,” the group emphasized.
Class suit
In December 2025, CEED, together with affected Mindoro residents filed a class suit for compensation before the regional trial court in Pinamalayan, representing fisherfolk who suffered collective losses due to the spill.
The case names the shipowner, RDC Reield Marine Services; the vessel insurer, The Shipowners’ P&I Club; and charterer, SL Harbor Bulk Terminal Corp., as jointly and severally liable.
Under Republic Act No. 9483, or the Oil Pollution Compensation Act, claims must be filed within three years from the date of damage.
Protect VIP calls for “a science-based, long-term restoration program covering 5,185 hectares of affected marine habitats, including mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds.”
To ensure compliance, the program must be supported by a 10-year ecological monitoring fund to be bankrolled by the parties responsible for the environmental disaster as part of their accountability, aside from pursuing them for criminal liability, it said.
Gariguez said rehabilitation must be “the total restoration of community integrity [and] not merely the removal of oil.”
To prevent a similar incident from happening in the area, the group called for the declaration of the VIP as a protected area under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System law, and designating it as a “no-go” zone for vessels carrying hazardous materials.
