Oil spill booms installed near sunken Vietnamese ship

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has set up oil spill booms around a Vietnamese cargo vessel that ran aground in Palawan on Tuesday.

The PCG said an oil sheen has been detected near Calandorang Bay in Balabac where the Vietnamese-flagged vessel Viet Hai Star remained stranded yesterday.

The oil sheen was believed to have have come from the 29,000 liters of automotive diesel oil on the vessel.

The cargo ship, which departed from Ho Chi Minh City and was on its way to Cagayan de Oro, was carrying 4,000 tons of rice.

“Initially the plan was to float the vessel from its position by removing water inside the ship. However, since it is high tide and because of bad weather condition in the area, we could only see the bridge (of the ship),” PCG Ensign Chrieson Gabayan said.