Philippines fears oil spill could reach tourist resort island of Boracay
Manila, Mar 6 (EFE).- Philippines authorities fear that the oil spill from a tanker that sunk last week, and which has already reached several islands in the center of the archipelago, may reach the island of Boracay, the country’s most important tourist destination.
The MT Princess Empress sunk last Tuesday off the coast of Naujan, Oriental Mindoro province, carrying bout 800,000 liters of industrial oil.
“If the oil reaches Boracay, the consequences for the island are unpredictable. Nobody can predict now how long tourism would take to recover,” an employee of the Visayas regional office of the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT), who preferred to remain anonymous, told EFE.
At the weekend, oil from the slick, which is about 25 kilometers long and 300-500 meters wide, reached one of the islands of Caluya, Antique province, about 33 kilometers from Boracay, an island ringed by fine white-sand beaches that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
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Source: https://www.laprensalatina.com/philippines-fears-oil-spill-could-reach-tourist-resort-island-of-boracay/
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