The government, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), will provide ''various forms of assistance to families and individuals affected by an oil spill'' caused by a sunken motor tanker in Oriental Mindoro.

In his Twitter account Friday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said:'' We are closely monitoring the situation with the Philippine Coast Guard as the lead agency.''

''Special attention will be given to affected fisherfolks who will be losing their source of livelihood because of the oil spill,'' said Marcos.

The Coast Guard Aviation Force observed a two to three kilometer oil spillage in the vicinity of waters off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro where a motor tanker carrying industrial oil sank on Tuesday.

The coastal areas of the municipality of Pola ''are observed the most affected,'' the DENR said Friday.

Pola Mayor Jennifer Cruz told dzBB the area affected by the oil spill was more than 533,000 hectares and affected 4,259 families.

“It covers 11 barangays so all of them were affected. Since I didn’t allow our fishermen to venture into the sea, they have no livelihood. But yesterday we made an emergency purchase so that our fishermen could have food to eat,” she said.

People in Pola gave been scooping oil and collecting them in buckets. DMS