Filed under News | Environment | Travel
It's all over the local news now that the Philippines has just experienced its biggest oil spill yet. The potentially catastrophic environmental disaster happened just off the coast of the Visayan island province of Guimaras when an oil tanker (commissioned by Petron) carrying 2 million liters of fuel, sank and started leaking oil into the ocean.While I do not consider myself a genuine environmentalist, I can say I am a nature lover. So naurally, my heart sank upon learning this news. Not only will this 'accident' ruin the pristine waters and coastline of Guimaras, one of the country's best tourist attractions, this will also affect the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in the area.
And personally, this broke my heart since in two weeks, my friends and I will be taking our trip to the Visayas and Guimaras is part of our itinerary. We've been looking forward to this trip since March when we already bought our plane tickets to take advantage of an airline company's promo. It would have been our first time to visit Guimaras to experience their wonderful beaches and taste their 'sweetest-in-the-whole-world' mangoes. We still have to decide whether we would modify our travel itinerary as a result of the oil spill incident but in any case, this has inevitably dampened our excitement for the trip...
Tropical the island breeze,
All of nature wild and free,
This is where I long to be...
- Madonna, La Isla Bonita
Guimaras
Environment
Oil Spill
Travel
3 comments:
What a terrible disaster. I hope it does not affect your vacation.
I live in Texas and we have had lots of spills around here. It really messes up the beach and you come out of the water with little balls of black oil on you. Baby oil or other petroleum product will clean it off.
Nowadays, they have oil eating bacteria and ways to reclaim the oil using booms and other methods.
Good luck in paradise.
It's still ok to go to Guimaras. Most of the resorts were spared and the oil spill is not as bad as you think. Read my blog entry and the letter of the TOurism Region 6 Director Edwin Trompeta.
it will take years to clean up the sea again. Just imagine the thousands of marine life affected and the livelihood that goes with it.
really sad news :(
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