A month after motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress sank off Oriental Mindoro, authorities have collected over 100,000 liters of oil waste from the waters of oil spill-affected areas.

Based on the data released by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday,  March 30, most of the retrieved oil waste came from the waters of Pola, Mindoro, with a total of 93,336.7 liters

In the other areas in Oriental Mindoro, authorities have collected 2,708.16 liters of oil waste from Naujan, while only 1,249.2 liters were gathered from the waters of Calapan City.

A total of 97, 294.06 liters of oil waste have been retrieved from the province of Oriental Mindoro, data showed.

Meanwhile, authorities have gathered 3,100 liters of oil waste from the province of Antique, particularly in the waters of Caluya.

Collected from the waters of Verde Island in Batangas City were  237 of oil waste. It is worth noting that Verde Island is the world’s center of marine biodiversity.

All in all, 100,631.06 oil waste have been retrieved by authorities in the provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Antique, and Batangas.

Per the rapid assessment conducted by the DENR from March 6 to 10, a total of 5,185.336 hectares (ha) of habitat areas have been affected by the oil spill in MIMAROPA  (Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan)  and Region VI.

In MIMAROPA, the habitat areas affected are corals (2,251.95 ha), seagrass (1,040.66 ha), and mangroves (1,604.23 ha), having a total of 4,896.84 ha.

The DENR said 288.496 ha of habitat areas have been affected in Region VI---they are seagrass (245.592 ha) and mangroves (42.904).

On March 28, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported that nearly 400,000 liters of industrial oil are still intact within the MT Princess Empress, which sank off the coast of Naujan, Oriental Mindoro on Feb. 28.

The eight tankers of the MT Princess Empress, which have been responsible for the oil disaster, have reportedly had multiple holes discovered by the remotely operated vehicle brought in by Japanese experts, according to earlier reports.

The PCG stated that, based on the reports of the experts, four of the eight tankers situated at the rear of the vessel were nearly empty.