MANILA — Over 24,000 hectares of coral reef area may be at risk in an oil spill in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, marine experts said Friday.

In a bulletin, the marine experts described the affected area to be 1.5 times the size of Quezon City.

"At risk is over 24,000 hectares of coral reef area in Mindoro alone—from Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro, all the way to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro," they said.

They said the oil has reportedly reached the shores of the coastal towns of Naujan, Pola, and Pinamalayan, noting that with the direction of the wind and the waves, the oil might reach the southern tip of Mindoro in a matter of days.

The marine experts, from schools composed of UP Diliman Marine Science Institute, UP Visayas, and Mindanao State University — Iligan Institute of Technology, are currently working with other agencies to address the issue.

"The team is already considering possible contingencies to address the spread of the oil, made difficult by the prevailing strong winds and waves. The team also said that the extent of the spill and the measures to be used depend largely on the kind of oil that was contained in the ship, which the PCG is currently working towards identifying," they said.

"A team with representatives from the different agencies, including MSI, has been deployed onsite to assess and assist the situation on the ground. Other efforts being done to help understand the spill include hydrodynamic modeling to determine where the oil might end up given the wind and currents in the area."

The Philippine Coast Guard is also racing to clean up the spill from the sunken oil tanker in the waters off Oriental Mindoro province.

• Coast guard races to contain oil spill from sunken tanker

The Princess Empress sank with its cargo of 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil as it sailed into rough seas off Naujan on Tuesday.

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