P114m in oil spill claims filed

An initial batch of 3,457 victims from the fisheries sector has so far filed a combined P114 million in financial compensation claims for the economic losses that they suffered due to the MT Princess Empress oil spill, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, a member of the House committee on ecology, said on Sunday. “Those figures from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, or IOPC Funds, are very preliminary. Additional claims from capture fishery alone have probably been submitted by now, but have not been aggregated and reported yet,” Pimentel said.