Cargo ship warned: Don’t leave Cebu

USS Fort Worth makes a port of call in Cebu. The 3,500 metric ton, 118m Freedom-class littoral combat ship docked at the Cebu International Port last Monday. LTJG Herlaine Inao, Naval Forces Central Command spokesperson, said the vessel would be at the CIP from August 29 to 31 to replenish the supplies and fuel. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

THE commander of the Cebu Station of the Philippine Coast has warned the ship captain and the crew of LCT Nicia of Asian Shipping Corp. not to leave Cebu unless the shipping firm had settled the damage it had done to the marine sanctuary in Lilo-an town in northern Cebu.

Cebu Station Commander Agapito Bibat said that the cargo vessel has no clearance yet to leave Cebu.
“We sent them (the) warning after they left Liloan and transferred in Mandaue City since last week,” Bibat said.

The 483.5 gross ton vessel anchored in a marine sanctuary in Barangay Poblacion last Aug. 17 with the crew citing the bad weather for their action.

It had just delivered sand at Camotes Island and was bound to the City of Naga to deliver cement when the incident happened.

The 16-hectare area was declared a marine sanctuary in 2003 and is home to 151 types of corals and five fish species.

After the incident, the ship transferred to the town’s anchorage area in Barangay Catarman to prevent further damage, but last week, it sailed to its designated berthing area at the Ouano Wharf in Mandaue City.

Bibat said the ship captain, Berlin Edep, told him that they transferred to the Ouano Wharf because of the gale warning.