A local cargo ship was half submerged after colliding with a foreign utility vessel off South Harbor in Port Area, Manila on Thursday.
Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson Commodore Armando Balilo said investigators found out that M/V Palawan Pearl, running on seven knots, came from the Pasig River while Cyprus-flagged BKM 104 was running on 10 knots when the collision happened at about around 2:10 a.m.
A knot is equivalent to one nautical mile per hour or 1.15 miles per hour.
No injuries were reported by both ships.
“[M/V Palawan Pearl] was hit by the said utility vessel on her quarter port. Sa gawing kaliwa ng unahan ng barko malapit sa engine ‘yung tinamaan (Around the front left side of the ship, near the engine, was hit),” Balilo said in a statement.
BKM 104 was contracted to perform dredging and other land developments needed for the construction of the New Manila International Airport in Bulakan, Bulacan.
M/V Palawan Pearl is currently about 100 meters from the Baseco Beach shoreline, with oil sheens observed to be surrounding the distressed vessel.
To mitigate the effects of a possible oil spill, the Marine Environmental Protection Force of the PCG will lay down four segments of oil spill boom around the ship.
The PCG said M/V Palawan Pearl was carrying around 3,000 liters of diesel oil in its storage tank, a single drum of diesel oil, 60 liters of engine oil, and five liters of bilge oil when the incident occurred.
BRP Panglao (FPB-2402) was deployed to monitor and help M/V Palawan Pearl
Source: Philippines News Agency