The Terranova was only the beginning. Two days after it sank, the motor tanker Jason Bradley -- carrying 5,500 liters of diesel fuel -- went down in nine meters of water off the coast of Mariveles, just one municipality over. Its six crewmen were rescued by a passing vessel. Then on July 31, the MV Mirola 1 was discovered abandoned, run aground, and tilted onto its side in the Five Fingers area of Mariveles, leaking diesel from its interior tanks. The Coast Guard determined it had run aground on July 23, two days before the Terranova sank, after sailing from Navotas without authorization. Three vessels. Three oil sources. One bay already under siege from the worst weather system to hit the region that summer. Investigators from the Department of Justice later suggested all three may have been involved in oil smuggling -- a charge the Terranova's owner, Portavaga Ship Management Inc., denied. Records showed the Jason Bradley had been the subject of a seizure warrant in 2022 for failing fuel marking tests, and the Mirola 1 was entirely unregistered.

The Coast Guard's initial assessment was blunt: the spill was enormous, stretching across several kilometers and at risk of making landfall on the coast of Manila itself. By July 30, satellite imaging revealed the oil slick had grown to cover approximately 94 square kilometers -- nearly 5 percent of Manila Bay's total surface area. The Philippine Coast Guard warned that if the Terranova's entire cargo of 1,494 metric tons of industrial fuel dispersed into the bay, it could become the largest oil spill in Philippine history. Strong waves pushed the slick rapidly in all directions. Traces appeared in Bulacan province to the north and across multiple municipalities in Cavite to the south. On August 1, oil reached the coast of Manila, visible from Roxas Boulevard. Bataan Governor Joet Garcia imposed a no-fishing zone on Limay, affecting some 14,000 people in the province's fishing industry. Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla declared a state of calamity across seven municipalities and the city of Bacoor. Bataan followed with its own state of calamity on August 6.

The cleanup effort mixed improvisation with international coordination. The Coast Guard deployed floating barriers and began siphoning oil with water buckets while divers worked to seal 24 tank valves across the Terranova's eight compartments. By July 29, they had sealed 14 of them. Booms fashioned from coconut husks joined commercial dispersants in the fight to contain the spreading slick. The Department of the Interior appealed to the public for donations of hay, hair, and coconut coir to fashion additional absorbent booms. The scale of environmental damage was staggering: the Department of Environment and Natural Resources estimated that approximately 4,700 hectares of critical ecosystems and 44 sites connected to the Asian Waterbird Census lay within a 30-kilometer radius of the Terranova's resting place. Coral reefs and mangrove areas suffered contamination alongside the water and air. Fish samples from parts of Cavite tested positive for petrochemicals even before the slick arrived.

Behind the satellite imagery and hectare counts were real people whose daily lives depended on the bay. Authorities estimated that around 350,000 people were affected in Cavite province alone, including roughly 25,000 who worked directly in fishing. Daily economic losses in Cavite ran to nearly 18 million Philippine pesos. The Department of Agriculture calculated total damages to fishing at 78.69 million pesos, directly affecting 28,373 people. Shellfish harvesting was banned across Cavite. The Bureau of Fisheries did not lift its warnings against consuming seafood from most affected areas until August 13 -- and Cavite remained excluded even then. For fishing families who depended on daily catches to feed their children, the weeks of enforced idleness were devastating. President Marcos announced on August 28 that fishing in Cavite could resume, but the damage to livelihoods, marine ecosystems, and public trust had already been done.

The contracted salvor, Harbor Star Shipping Services, began the painstaking work of extracting fuel from the sunken Terranova on August 13, after a two-week delay to replace temporary capping bags with metal seals. Tropical Storm Enteng forced another suspension in early September. When the final tally came on September 12, the results were remarkably thorough: Harbor Star recovered 1,415,954 liters of oil and 17,725 kilograms of solid oily waste, a recovery rate of 97.43 percent. The remaining 37,867 liters -- 2.57 percent of the total cargo -- were lost to biodegradation, dissipation, absorption by booms, and unpumpable sludge. The Jason Bradley was refloated on September 26 and towed to a dockyard in Orion, Bataan. The Mirola 1 had been refloated a month earlier. The Philippine Senate opened an investigation on August 14, probing questions of regulatory failure, unauthorized sailing, and the possibility that the bay's worst environmental disaster in years had its roots in the illicit fuel trade.