Fuel siphoning done; salvaging of sunken ship may be delayed

ILOILO CITY ,Philippines  — Siphoning of fuel from the sunken ship, M/V Asia Malaysia has been finished, but the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)-Western Visayas projected that 40 days might not be enough to complete the salvage operations of the vessel.

"Wala nang possibility of an oil leak," said Commodore Athelo Ybañez, district commander of PCG-WV, who however reasoned out that bad weather condition impeded the supposedly smooth salvage operations of the sunken ship.

The PCG-WV earlier estimated that M/V Asia Malaysia carried around 21,000 liters of fuel when it sunk off Calabasa Island in Ajuy, Iloilo last July 31.

The 5,000 liters of diesel fuel were intended for its generator's use, while 16,000 liters of blended fuel, which were usually composed of 60 percent diesel and 40 percent bunker fuel, were for the main engine's.

With the fuel tank cleared, the salvage operation is now focused on getting cargoes from the vessel's cargo hold. There were at least four vehicles that need to be taken out.

Ybañez said the cargo ramp was already opened to make way for the four vehicles that need to be taken out from the cargo hold. "But after the removal of the cargoes, the vessel refloating would take place," he said.

But even if the salvage operation would take more than four days, Ybañez said that Trans Asia Shipping Lines, Inc., operator of the M/V Asia Malaysia, would still not in violation of any agreement.

"The PCG-WV gave them a 90-day period to do the salvage operations. The 40 days was just an estimate for them to complete the operations if everything runs smoothly," he said.

Ybañez is scheduled to check today the salvage operations done on M/V Asia Malaysia. It can be noted that Uni-Orient Pearl Ventures arrived at Manapla, Negros Occidental about a week after the ill-fated M/V Asia Malaysia sank off. The salvage operation then started under the monitoring and supervision of the PCG-WV.