P64-M NFA rice rotting

LEGAZPI CITY — About 58,000 bags of Thai rice imported by the National Food Authority (NFA) are rotting on the cargo bay of a vessel that ran aground on a coral reef off San Miguel Island in Tabaco City, Albay last Jan. 17.

The vessel, M/V Accord, was on its way to deliver the imported rice reportedly worth about P64 million to the Tabaco City port to support relief operations for the thousands of evacuees in Albay, when it ran aground.

Lt. Nelson Torre, Coast Guard commander here, said he ordered the vessel’s bunker oil siphoned. So far, some 8,000 liters of the ship’s 50,000 liters of bunker oil had been pumped into its sister ship, M/V Seen San.

"I suspect that the bunker oil inside the ship has already been absorbed by the 58,000 bags of rice," Torre told The STAR in a phone interview.

He said the oil spill detected last Jan. 17 had been contained, thanks to the oil spill boom, absorbent pads and dust saw supplied by Lafayette Philippines.