GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 May) – The provincial government of Sarangani and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) have launched an investigation over the alleged dumping of coal wastes along the Sarangani Bay by a barge and tugboat from Indonesia.
Rolando Tuballes, Sarangani environment and natural resources officer, said residents of the coastal village of Kapatan in Glan town reported earlier this week that barge and tugboat Oceana 1 and 2 dumped their wastes when it temporarily docked in the area recently.
He said they were still determining the identity of the owners of the barge and tugboat, which reportedly carried 11 crew members from Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar.
Tuballes said the barge docked in Manila earlier this month to deliver coal but later sailed to this city to pick up some cargo.
“But the cargo they’re supposed to pick up at the Makar Wharf was not yet ready when they arrived so they instead docked off the coasts of Kapatan,” he said in an interview over radio station Bombo Radyo here.
While docked in the area, he said some residents noticed that the barge just dumped their wastes there.
Concerned residents took photographs of the dumping, which happened along the portion of the bay that had been declared by the national government as a protected seascape.
The photos, which were exposed in a local television program, showed the barge dumping huge volumes of dark-colored waste materials in the sea waters.
Sources from the PCG station here said the officers and crew of the barge and tugboat have not filed the required documents to dock at the Makar Wharf here.
The barge’s crew might have decided to just dock at a portion of the Sarangani Bay to avoid payment of the required docking fee, the source said.
Lawyer Arnel Zapatos, Sarangani legal officer, said the dumping of any waste material in the Sarangani Bay is illegal since it is a protected seascape.
He said they have sought assistance from the PCG and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in investigating the incident and in determining the possible liabilities of the owner and crew of the barge.
“The dumping of any waste anywhere in the bay is strictly prohibited and such violation carries some penalties,” he said.
Sarangani Bay was declared a protected seascape on March 5, 1996 by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 756.
The protected area falls under the general administration of the DENR and the management of the established Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) as provided for in Republic Act 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)