Disaster officials and local executives found themselves facing more headache Monday after confirming that some 100,000 liters of bunker oil from a paper manufacturing firm in Marikina City spilled into the floodwaters that continuously batter the city’s low-lying barangays.

Senior Supt. Ronaldo Po, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR), said the oil spill started when the storage tank of Noah’s Paper Mill ruptured at the height of heavy flooding in Marikina City on Saturday.

“The storage tank was forced by floodwaters to move from its base, causing the rupture,” said Po, who was sent by the CIDG leadership to investigate the incident.

“Although the tank was bolted on a cement base, the force of the flood caused it to move upwards by
just around one foot on one side but enough to disconnect the pipe,” he said during a phone interview.

During ocular inspection, Po said he found the oil spilled within the compound of the Noah’s Paper Mill, then seeped into the basement parking of nearby SM Marikina mall.

But what earlier alarmed local officials was when they found out that oil sheen were already spotted along the Marikina River, prompting them to send a team of investigators to probe and coordinate with local authorities as to how the spill could be managed.

Po said there is no cause for alarm since only a minimal volume of bunker oil spilled into the Marikina River. Most of the spilled oil is confined inside the compound of the paper mill and the SM Marikina basement parking.

He admitted, nevertheless, that the oil spill could have caused further environmental concerns if the storage tank was filled at the time of the incident.