Remarkably authorities in the Philippines have had to attend to another distressed vessel in Bataan to the west of Manila, a third ship accident in the area in the space of just one week.
Oil was seen flowing into the ocean yesterday from tanks inside the Mirola-1, which ran aground near the shore of Mariveles town. Nobody was found onboard with investigators suggesting the rusty ship had been abandoned. Last year, the 45-year-old ship was caught stealing more than 30,000 litres of diesel.
Two other ships have sunk in the same area in recent days.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported over the weekend that they discovered leaks on the sunken tanker Jason Bradley. The small, 39 m long vessel was carrying a cargo of diesel when it sank in shallow depths in Bataan, near where the Terra Nova tanker capsized and sank on Thursday last week, in close proximity to the capital, Manila, spilling significant volumes of oil.