DENR VII Sends Team to Conduct Investigation on Coral Incident

Amid reports of a coral crash incident off the waters of Lapu-Lapu City, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 has formed its own team to conduct investigation on the said case.

“We just can’t ignore the potential damage to the corals if appropriate measures or interventions will not be institutionalized by the operator of this watercraft taking into account the strong underwater current in Mactan area,” said DENR 7 Regional Executive Director Dr. Isabelo Montejo in a statement.

Montejo said the team will be composed of personnel from their Environmental Management Bureau 7 who will check the coral reef, where the yellow submarine allegedly hit last month.

Meanwhile, a team of divers from the Lapu-Lapu City government inspected the reef yesterday and discovered a good portion of it in a bad state, allegedly from that crash incident. The operator of the said underwater craft earlier denied there was such incident so to speak, but the investigating team, also in yesterday’s dive, saw hints that the side of submarine crashed into some rough objects.