More than five tons of crude oil believed to be dumped by an unknown ship in a foiled smuggling along the Lingayen Gulf was seized yesterday by customs and maritime personnel last January 7, 2008.
Tony Ferrarin, deputy collector of the Port of San Fernando, told The STAR that they were able to seized 25 sealed plastic blue drums containing 200 kilos each of oil that were scattered along the Gulf, particularly in the coast of San Fabian, Pangasinan and this city.
“We have in our custody thirteen drums that were recovered in San Fabian and twelve in San Fernando . We heard also that there are other drums found by fishermen but they were allegedly kept away from authorities,” Ferrarin said.
Senior Inspector Rudy Bautista, a maritime police, said they called assistance from Mayor Pablo Ortega and barangay officials of Catbangen when they saw that several individuals were retrieving some of the drums near the seashore.
Bautista said they initially suspected that the drums may contain toxic chemicals and they fear that it might cause danger if they had open it so they decided to coordinate with customs and local officials for proper identification of the contraband.
“We are now looking into it (smuggling attempt). Probably this activity has been going on for the past months,” Ferrarin said.
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