Salvage operations for the grounded cargo ship, M/V Ever Transport 3, off the coast of Barangay Calindagan in Dumaguete City has already started.
Lt. Commander Agapito Bibat, commander of the Coast Guard Station in Dumaguete, disclosed that Steel Ray Salvaging Services had received a copy of their approved application for salvaging on Jan. 24 from the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters in Manila.
Prior to the proper salvaging of the cargo ship, workers on Thursday began retrieving cases of beer, beer bottles and energy drink bottles off the Ever Transport 3, said Bibat.
A tugboat is expected to arrive on a still undetermined date to conduct the actual salvaging operations once all the cargo has been retrieved and offloaded, Bibat added.
Salvage operations would cover the re-floating of the Ever Transport 3 and towing it to a shipyard in Naga, Cebu, the Coast Guard-Dumaguete station commander said.
Lt. Commander Bibat has reassured that so far, the Coast Guard has not sighted any signs of oil leakage from the Ever Transport 3 after it ran aground last December 17 during the onslaught of Tropical Storm Sendong in Dumaguete.
All measures are being undertaken to ensure that any fuel left inside the half-sunken ship will not find its way into the sea during salvage operations, Bibat said.
The M/V Ever Transport 3, a cargo ship with a gross tonnage of 494.87, is owned by Kheri Lines, Inc. based in Zamboanga City.
It was docked at the Dumaguete Port en route to Mindanao when the Coast Guard-Dumaguete station issued a no-departure order on December 15 in anticipation of Tropical Storm Sendong, which weather forecasters said was going to hit Dumaguete and the province of Negros Oriental.
In the morning of December 17, however, the Ever Transport 3 had to leave the city port to seek shelter elsewhere after huge waves spawned by “Sendong” slammed it back and forth against the pier where it was docked.
As the cargo ship was underway from the Dumaguete port, it ran aground off the coast of Canday-ong, a sub-village of Calindagan.
Its 34 crew members and passengers were safely rescued and brought to dry land immediately after it keeled on its port side.