Groups Call on Local Governments to Enforce MOA Protecting Verde Island Passage in Wake of Oil Spill

Climate justice groups in the Philippines are urging the country’s provincial governments to enforce a memorandum of agreement (MOA) aimed at safeguarding the Verde Island Passage (VIP), dubbed the “Amazon of the oceans”. At a press conference marking the sixth anniversary of the MOA’s signing, campaigners called for oil tankers to be banned from the area and for a halt to applications for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the vicinity, located near where over 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil was spilled when the MT Princess Empress sank off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro last month. The groups claim that fossil gas plant operations in the area are already causing an alarming decrease in fish catch.