A total of 26 out of the 35 sampling stations in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro have failed to meet the criteria for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR’s) Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016 due to high levels of oil and grease. In a joint statement, the DENR and the Department of Health (DOH) disclosed that only nine of the 35 sampling stations passed the water quality standards. “The results released last April 14, 2023, show that only 9 sampling stations have met the criteria for water quality guidelines set by the DENR Administrative Order 2016-08 or the Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016,” the statement read. Speaking to the media, Environment Secretary Maria Antonia "Toni" Yulo-Loyzaga said the banning of water activities in the area will most likely depend on the assessment of the DOH. “Difficult for me to speculate about the banning,” she noted. “On the decision on the governance of this risk, this is really a decision really and pronouncement that the DOH will have to make. And of course, the local governments will hopefully also take notice of this po.” “So, oil and grease po, of course, there is a concern in terms of ingestion, and so I will leave that to the DOH kasi public health and public safety po,” she further explained. It was already emphasized by the health department that the result of the water quality test “is not conclusively related to the oil spill” from the motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress, which capsized the coast of Naujan, Oriental Mindoro on February 28 and was reportedly carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil as cargo. Meanwhile, Yulo also talked about the ecosystems affected by the incident. “There are some ecosystems that could be badly affected, we need to go into the water to actually see whether or not corals have been coated for example, and we’re not able to do that yet but the DENR has the capacity to go down there—we have the divers, we have an ROV, and we need to actually have physical confirmation of the range of the actual impact in order for us to say makaka-recover ba, gaano ba katagal, etc,” she noted. While the DENR official highlighted the impact of the support coming from the different municipalities, she also noted that it is still hard to determine when the leakage will cease. “In terms of months, it’s very difficult for us to say, at this point, how long we would like to be able to say for certain when the final leaks will be cut, and that still is being processed now. And so, what we would like to say is at this point, let’s take a look hopefully within the month or so. The leakage will probably be contained definitely and we will actually be able to say what kind of damage has been incurred in the ecosystems that are submerged in the water,” she explained.