A Department of Justice (DoJ) official on Saturday said the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPCF) is ready to indemnify local government units (LGUs) that shelled out funds to mitigate the effects of the oil spill in Bataan.

Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said the IOPCF is currently looking at the expenses incurred by LGUs to help those that were affected by the maritime disaster.

“As we speak, the institutional claimants, the LGUs which provided aid, conducted cleanup drives, as well as the government agencies that used their contingency funds to contain the oil spill, all of them are being accessed by the IOPCF for indemnification,” Vasquez said in a forum.

He reported that some 52,000 fisherfolk from Bataan and Cavite had been affected by the oil spill.

The provincial governments of Bataan and Cavite are helping identify the roughly 21,000 people who are probable claimants of the compensation.

He said they used as a template the 2023 Mindoro oil spill in coming up with the proper payment for the affected individuals.

“The owner of the MT Terranova, the insurer, as well as the IOPCF, have already signified their readiness to pay,” he added.

He said that based on the template, each affected individual may get an initial payment ranging from P10,000 to P50,000.

The MT Terranova, carrying some 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil, sank off Lamao Point in Limay, Bataan on 25 July at the height of the inclement weather due to super typhoon “Carina” and the enhanced southwest monsoon.

The Philippine Coast Guard said Friday that around 2,500 liters of oil have been recovered so far.

Oil siphoning from one of the eight tanks of the Terranova began on Wednesday. Each tank is estimated to contain 175,000 liters of industrial fuel oil.