Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) – The national government is eyeing the filing of compensation claims in connection with the Mindoro oil spill within three years, a Department of Justice official said Friday.
“Dapat makapag-claim tayo by then otherwise kasi, may tinatawag na prescription of claims eh. ‘Pag tinulugan mo kasi ang claims mo, mawe-waive iyan.” said Undersecretary Raul Vasquez, when asked if the government would seek financial compensation within three years, or the prescriptive period.
[Translation: We should file claims by then otherwise, there is what is called a prescription of claims. If you sleep on claims, they will be waived.]
Once a claim has exceeded the prescription period, it is considered prescribed meaning a party can no longer avail of legal remedies to pursue it.
Vasquez said the compensation claim could be split to first accommodate the national government, and then local government units as they have more details to scrutinize.
He also said it was unclear if the financial compensation could be sought as early as this year as the government would first have to compute how much it would ask.
He added that certain agencies were not present at the meeting to discuss and document the country’s claims from the IOPC.
In February, the MT Princess Empress sank in the waters off Oriental Mindoro. The tanker was carrying 900,000 liters of industrial oil that spilled in the waters of the provinces of Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan and Antique.
According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, over 137,000 people in Mimaropa and Western Visayas were affected by the oil spill. Residents of surrounding areas fell ill as a result.
The Office of Civil Defense said the livelihoods of 13,654 farmers and fisherfolk were also damaged.
Agricultural losses over the oil spill in Mimaropa and Western Visayas were pegged at over ₱4.7 billion, the national task force on the Oriental Mindoro slick disclosed.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, meanwhile, said the spill may have damaged ₱7 billion worth of mangrove areas, seagrass beds, and coral reefs in affected regions.
The Philippine Coast Guard said that the oil siphoning in the affected waters was completed on June 17.
