THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is already verifying reports that swarms of Chinese ships anchored in Philippine-claimed areas in the South China Sea are dumping human waste there, a department official said on Wednesday.
US-based geospatial imagery firm Simularity, Inc. earlier reported that Chinese vessels have been dumping raw sewage into the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
The DENR has already coordinated with the Philippine Coast Guard to verify the correctness of the report, Environment Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda told a televised news briefing.
The DENR was also set to coordinate with the Department of National Defense and the Department of Foreign Affairs, he said.
Simularity founder and Chief Executive Officer Liz Derr earlier told a forum organized by a Philippine think-tank that human waste and wastewater have accumulated at Union Banks in the resource-rich Spratly Islands, where more than 200 Chinese ships have moored.
The raw sewage led to the overgrowth of harmful algae in the disputed area threatening marine life and damaging corals, she said.
Mr. Antiporda downplayed the report, saying what the agency found in the image was not “waste discharge” but “most probably oil spill or something which is not human waste.”
Still, the DENR would investigate the report “since this is to protect our environment,” he said.
“Iimbestigahan pa rin po natin at aalamin (We will still investigate and find out), just to protect our bio-diversity,” Mr. Antiporda said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
