The Makakalikasan Party joins growing calls for banning oil tanker traffic in and near critical marine habitats all over the country to avoid future incidence of oil spill as we continue to struggle with the insufficient actions and the lack of quick justice and accountability of those responsible for this man-made disaster.

LuzViMinda (Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao) has a total of 991 marine protected areas (MPAs) of varying sizes and of varying degrees of protection covering a total area of 14,944.53 square kilometer or close to 5% of our total marine areas of about 300T square kilometers. While spread out across the country, the Party believes it would be manageable enough to ban all traffic of oil tankers in and around these areas.

The Party do not believe this to be too drastic a measure considering how rich and fragile our marine ecosystems and habitat are and how badly the country is capable of enforcing our marine and environmental conservation laws and in responding to immediate actions for and in the long term the rehabilitation of its damages as appropriate responses to this type of disasters. 

Amidst this, Party President Roy Cabonegro has in fact issued a call “…for Makakalikasan Alliance and all other Greens and environmental groups in the country to ACT on this NOW” He urged full accountability and liability to the owners and operators of the oil tanker MV Princess Empress and the immediate identification of all RESPONSIBLE government officials and filling of criminal and administrative charges after initial investigation showed that said tanker operated with no permit to sail.

The NDRMMC recently estimated that 173,000 people in 3 regions: MIMAROPA, CALABRZON and Western Visayas will immediately be affected with this oil spill. Further, UP-MSI estimates that 20,000 hectares of coral reef, 9,900 hectares of mangroves, and 6,000 hectares of seagrass would be at risk due to the oil slick

For more information:

Rommel Ortega -National Spokesperson

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