Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has advised the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to exercise foresight when it comes to its response to the massive oil spill caused by a sunken tanker off Oriental Mindoro last month. “Alongside taking the lead in speeding up the multisectoral cleanup drive to prevent the further spread of the oil slick believed to be the biggest in recent years, the DENR would do well to similarly fast-track its crafting of a mid- to long-term risk management strategy to cushion the impact of the oil slick on marine biodiversity," Villafuerte said in a statement Saturday, March 11. Villafuerte, majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA), said authorities must also mind "the health and livelihoods of fishermen and other people in the affected coastal communities, and the tourism business in Oriental Mindoro and possibly as many as four or five more  provinces". The sunken vessel, MT Princess Empress, is an oil products tanker that was only a year old. It capsized last Feb. 28. Villafuerte pointed out that while the actual cleanup might be completed before the year is over, environmental groups have warned that the ecological, economic, social and health impacts of the oil spill will likely be felt for decades. “It’s bad enough that a fifth of an estimated 2.7 million tons of plastic waste generated annually in our country ends up in the ocean,” he noted. “Aquatic pollution will only get worse with the spillage of 800,000 liters of emulsified black oil by the sunken (MT) Princess Empress, which has put at risk an estimated 36,000 hectares (ha) of coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds,” Villafuerte, a former CamSur governor, said. The University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) believes the smudge leaked by the sunken tanker might affect about 20,000 ha of coral reefs; 9,900 ha of mangroves; and 6,000 ha of seagrass in Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Antique and Palawan.