Inclement weather or trouble with the boat engine.
Whichever be the case, a cargo vessel which entered the municipal waters of Liloan town, northern Cebu is being held by town officials following an investigation into possible damage the ship might have caused on Liloan’s marine sanctuary when it took shelter in the protected area without permission Monday night.
“There has been a violation by the act of entering the municipal waters and entering the marine sanctuary which is prohibited,” Liloan mayor Christina Frasco said of LCT Nicia, a cargo vessel owned by Asian Shipping Corporation weighing 483.75 gross tons.
Frasco, who asked the town’s Bantay Dagat office and the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) to properly document the incident, also sought the help of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR-7) to assess any damage to the town’s Takot Marine Sanctuary.
Liloan MENRO Officer Rene Noval said that there are 151 types of corals and several species of ornamental fish in the 16-hectare protected area located some 1.8 kilometers in the waters off Barangay Poblacion.
The area was declared a marine sanctuary in 2003 by a municipal ordinance.
The vessel which came from Ormoc City, Leyte was bound for the City of Naga, northern Cebu when it anchored in Takot Marine Sanctuary, without prior notice, after unloading its cargo of sand in Camotes Islands.
The vessel had seven officers and two engineers on board.
“The ship captain first misrepresented that they had trouble engine which was why he entered our marine sanctuary. He later said it was because of the weather. The Coast Guard has confirmed that no distress signal was sent by the ship,” Mayor Frasco said of ship captain Berlin Edep’s account when called to the mayor’s office to explain yesterday.
During the meeting, the ship captain admitted that he did not issue any emergency or warning signal to the Bantay Dagat.
A technical team from BFAR-7 is set to begin today the assessment of possible damage to corals and other marine life in the protected area. Until the assessment is completed, the cargo vessel will be prohibited from leaving the town.
“Based on recommendation, the ship will be moved to our anchorage area in Brgy. Catarman which is still within the municipal waters,” Mayor Frasco said.
Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Cebu Station Commander Agapito Bibat, meanwhile, said that PCG had cleared the vessel as sea worthy “but they (LCT Nicia) still have to face what the local government unit will be asking especially if there are damages in the sanctuary.”
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