The Philippines has struggled to contain serious oil spills in the past.
It took months to clean up after a tanker carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil sank off the central island of Mindoro last year, contaminating its waters and beaches and devastating the fishing and tourism industries.
Another tanker sank off the central island of Guimaras in 2006, spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil that destroyed a marine reserve, ruined local fishing grounds and covered stretches of coastline in black sludge
The coast guard and a private salvage operator are also working to offload an unspecified amount of diesel from another tanker that sank at the mouth of Manila Bay, a coast guard statement said.
The vessel’s owners had claimed the MTKR Jason Bradley was not carrying cargo, the statement said, but coast guard divers found leaks and sealed them.
The crew’s whereabouts were unknown.
The 39m vessel sank in muddy waters about half a kilometre from the coast of Mariveles municipality. It did not say when the second tanker sank.
The sinkings occurred as heavy rains fuelled by Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon lashed Manila and surrounding regions in recent days.
