[5] The oil spill adversely affected marine sanctuaries and mangrove reserves in three out of five municipalities in Guimaras Island and reached the shores of Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

[7] Dr. Jose Ingles, eco-region coordinator of the World Wide Fund for Nature in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, said that the damage may be felt by at least two generations.

[8] In the south-southeast of the spill site is located the Sulu Sea, a deep-water area frequented by commercially valued fish such as blue marlin and the yellowfin tuna, prized by the towns of southern Negros Occidental province as an important source of income for the communities.

[9] Clemente Cancio, President of Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation (SMDC), the company which owned MT Solar I, said that their foreign insurer was willing to pay the cost of damage brought about by the oil spill.

[9] President Gloria Arroyo ordered a full investigation into the country's worst oil spill that devastated marine ecosystems in the central Philippines.

Arroyo also ordered the Justice Department to join a special task force heading an investigation and cleanup on the island of Guimaras, where some 300 kilometers (190 mi) of coastline, including stretches of pristine beaches, had been affected by the oil slick from the sunken tanker.

"We shall do everything in our power to right the wrongs caused by this unfortunate incident," Arroyo said after visiting the island, adding that she was deeply pained by the disaster that she declared a "national calamity".