Filing of raps vs Princess Empress owners backed

ALAWMAKER has lauded the Department of Justice (DoJ) for recommending THE fiLING OF CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST the owners of the ship that caused the catastrophic Mindoro oil spill last year.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla approved the recommendation of a DoJ panel of prosecutors to indict the corporate officers of RDC Reield Marines Services Inc., the shipping company that owned the vessel, as well as an employee of the Maritime Industry Authority HMarina) and a private individual.

The charges include multiple counts of falsification of private documents, use of falsified documents, and multiple counts of falsification of public documents.

In a statement on Sunday, bicol SARO Party-list Rep. brian Raymund Yamsuan said that the recommendation to indict the owners of the M/T Princess Empress sends a “clear and strong message that abuses committed by companies that put profit over compliance of the law and the safety of the environment will not go unpunished.”

“We commend the DoJ under Secretary Remulla for holding accountable those responsible for this massive environmental disaster that affected over 75 kilometers of our coastlines and robbed tens of thousands of families of their means of livelihood,” Yamsuan, a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said.

Aside from this, Yamsuan urged authorities to look into the possibility of compelling RDC Reield Marine Services to pay compensation to fisherfolk and other workers who were rendered jobless due to the oil spill.

The spill happened on February 28 last year when the M/T Princess Empress, which contained around 900,000 liters of industrial fuel oil, sank off the coast of Mindoro.

The spill affected the livelihood of more than 40,000 families and exposed P7 billion worth of marine resources to dangers, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ estimate.

Aside from Oriental Mindoro, the provinces of Palawan, Antique and batangas were also affected by the oil spill, while traces of it reached the Verde Island in batangas City, home to the Verde Island Passage, the world’s most critical marine biodiversity center.

During the joint inquiry on the oil spill by the House Committees on Ecology and on Natural Resources last year, Yamsuan has called for the implementation of interagency protocols that would bring government agencies in close coordination with each other to swiftly mobilize and address the impact of environmental disasters on affected communities and ecosystems.