Wednesday, August 23, 2006 (Philippines)

A fisherman looks at oil-soaked debris at the shoreline of Iloilo. Japanese and US experts are coming to help clean up the oil spill that has wreaked havoc on fishing communities and a sprawling marine reserve. The slick has spread from Guimaras then to Panay and, possibly, the waters off north Cebu towns. (Ap photo) The oil slick from a sunken tanker off Guimaras Province is spreading and is threatening Cebu, an environmentalist said yesterday. “It’s not a matter of projection; it’s a matter of fact. The southwest monsoon is pushing it (oil spill) up,” lawyer Antonio Oposa of the Visayan Sea Squadron and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national environmental team leader said. Oposa told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview yesterday that the area covered by the slick is already wide yet only 10 percent of the two million liters of bunker fuel has leaked from Solar I. [full story]