ILOILO CITY, Aug. 19 (PNA) — Philippine Coast Guard Commander for Iloilo Station Dominador Senador said that the MV Sportivo salvor is now in the process of renewing its salvage permit in order that it could remove the vessel’s wreckage in the bottom of the sea in between Iloilo and Guimaras strait.
Senador, in an interview, said that the permit of the salvor hired by the Seen Sam Shipping Company has already expired June 10 and that it is now in the process of renewing with the PCG.
“The PCG central office will be the one to approve the application for renewal of the salvor’s permit,” the PCG station commander said.
He added that the unpredictable weather condition also hinders the retrieval of the ship’s debris in between the coast of Iloilo and Guimaras. The salvage deadline was last April but was extended for several times.
Task Force Sportivo spokesperson Raymund Moderes, in a separate interview earlier, said that until now the provincial government of Guimaras is waiting for the salvage company to retrieve the wreckage of MV Sportivo that sank last January 19, 2014 yet.
The vessel was supposed to transport Harvester fertilizers from Cebu to Palawan when there was a low pressure forcing the vessel to seek refuge on the area where it sunk.
Moderes added that the Seen Sam Shipping Company has already finished paying disturbance compensations reaching to P3 million to the fisherfolk mostly from Barangay Hoskyn, Buenavista, Guimaras due to the oil spill that the provincial government of Guimaras together with the affected residents dropped the plan of filing civil liability case against the vessel’s owner. (PNA)